We will be staying in Arr 1 at the Tuileries and want to take the train to Brussels for the day. Where is the closest train station?

The trains going to Belgium all leave from Gare du Nord.

As Stardust said, Paris Nord. The Thalys takes you to Brussels Midi (Zuid in Flemish/Dutch). It's a bit pricey, buy Thalys whisks you across northern France in about an hour and a half.

I did such a day trip while in Paris last year. With about 8 hours in Brussels I visited most of the major tourist spots, and was back in time for dinner in Paris.

Hi K,

THALYS is 75E each way and takes 1:25 hr.

However, if you go via Lille, it takes about 40 min longer, but is only 44E each way.


You can buy tickets for both routes at www.voyages-sncf.com.

You can get a Smilys fare for E49 (E24.50 each way, roundtrip required) at either www.sncf.com or www.thalys.com.

I visited Brussels and enjoyed it more than I thought; I saw most of what I wanted to see in 2-3 days. However, I much prefer Paris and might recommend you just spend all your time there.

It's an easy trip and an enjoyable way to spend a day. Here are some notes I made on it five years ago, although I doubt that things have changed much:

http://tinyurl.com/f96m7

Definitely look for the SMILYS discount fare that TimS cites.

Thanks for the advise regarding our Brussels daytrip. We're making our plans tonight and I'm getting excited now. A day in Brussels - I ca't imagine. Two weeks to go! Hopefully there won't a hurricane at home while we're gone.