I will be flying into Lyon soon to visit my college student in Grenoble. Am traveling with two female friends. Want to see sites in Grenoble, Lyon and Paris. We only have at the most 7 days. Not long enough I know but will have to do. Have never traveled in Europe before need help with arranging train travel between Lyon airport and Grenoble back and forth and to Paris and back Have flights and hotels figured out. thanks in advance

Sounds like a fun trip! I can't help too much but can get you started and at least top the post.

Check the train schedules at http://www.sncf.com/
Click the link for English, at the bottom of the page. You can probably wait to buy tickets when you arrive, and get them all at the same time if you know when you want to travel. I usually print out the timetable for the routes I'm taking so I know how frequent the trains run.

I don't know how to get from Lyon airport to the train station but from Lyon to Grenoble looks to be about 90 minutes. And Grenoble to Paris (Gare de Lyon) is about 3 hours on a direct train and look like they are close to hourly. From the train station in Paris, you can take the metro or catch a cab to your hotel, unless it is close to Gare de Lyon.

You might want to repost with a more descriptive title for specific questions. For example - Need help getting from Lyon airport to train station.

Hope this helps! Have fun!

Do you have 7 days in France or are you including travel time which would only make it 5? My husband and I spent 5 nights in Paris and we could have spent 2 weeks easily, but with your other plans, I would give Paris at least 3 nights so you can hit some of the highlights. For train travel have you looked at Eurorail.com? I am not sure which train station that you will arrive in Paris, but you can access the metro from the train station. I think we came into Gare du Nord (from AMsterdam) and I had a print out of the metro line that we needed tickets for. It was actually pretty easy to find the area. Many guidebooks have a metro line map for Paris including major train stations.

You will arrive at Gare de Lyon in Paris from Grenoble.

That's great advice from the above posters especially from cls2paris about train travel. Don't worry the French train service is one of the best. I was worried travelling alone by train from eastern France to Paris (3 hr. journey). It was straightforward and the ticket purchasing over sncf.com was so simple. I even ended up changing journeys after purchasing a ticket and I received a credit card refund automatically within a couple of days or so. See if you can get a PREM fare (lowest cost, non-refundable though) so you can print tickets online. Also check for a direct route so you don't need to transfer, but it doesn't sound like it for your trip.
Paris is great and when you arrive I recommend taking a taxi. It should be like 7 euro more or less.

Thanks for the advice. Haven't had acces to the computer for a while so am late getting them. My daughter has decided to meet us Fri pm and have us take a bus to Grenoble. We plan to tour Grenoble Sat & Sun with her, go to Paris Mon, Tues, leave Wed for Lyon and leave Thurs mid am. Have decided to get train tickets as we need them. We speak practically no French so am depending on her language skills to get us headed the right direction.

..May I ask a silly question- why Lyon. I can certainly understand Grenoble as your daughter will be there. She will have found some special places, restaurants ect which she can share with you which always makes a trip special. Have you thought about just limiting your trip to Paris (and day trips from Paris) and Grenoble?

I agree (and I really like Lyon) but Paris needs more time and it is so fabulous!

..Oh and if you are still thinking of all 3, the trip from Grenoble to Lyon is only about 1 1/2 hrs so I think I would go from Paris to Grenoble, train to Lyon and then Lyon to Paris....but again I wouldn't go to Lyon on such a short first trip to France.

We have decided to stay in Paris Mon & Tues nite to maximize our time in Paris and not travel back and forth. My daughter has classes she feels she can't miss on Mon & Tues. We decided to stay in Lyon on Wed nite so we don't have much trouble getting to the airport on Thurs. We will probably spend as much time in Paris as we can depending on the train schedules on Wed. Am glad to hear your opinions and it seems like we are on the same page as far as time goes. Thanks for all your time and replies. 11 days till we fly! Wish us luck & understanding French citizens.

I'm sure buying a couple train tickets as you need them should be no problem. Don't be worried about the language barrier, just be polite and patient and things will work out fine!

Jo mamma 5
Try and speak just a few words in the language- and you will find people most willing to help. On our last visit to Paris, we took the TGV to Toulose, and had no difficulty, and all we "spoke" to were most helpful. The train stations will have a "help" center- and someone will speak Englist there.
By the way, are you from Orleans??

I don't know how solid your hotel plans are, but here's how I'd play your situation:

Fri - arrive Lyon, sightsee a little, take 20:55 TGV to Grenoble (1h11)

Sat, Sun - see Grenoble, take 19:39 TGV to Paris (2h56)

Mon, Tue, Wed, see Paris, take 21:00 TGV to Lyon (1h55)

Thu - maybe a little more Lyon, and home

Thanks for all of your words of encouragement. Guess I'd better start packing-don't want to over pack. To capecodshanty-no I'm not from Orleans I've not had the chance to go there. I grew up in Neb, lived in Iowa for 71/2 years, Nashville,Tn for 6 1/2 years, South Dakota for 5 years and now am in NorthDakota-no I don't want to go any further North! Europe is a big jump for me but not my girls They want to experience the world and I think they will-one of them has got me going to France!Will let ya'll hear from me when I return. Thanks again.

I just spent three days in Lyon at the end of August and fell in love with the place. Take the hop-on/hop-off bus that leaves from the Place Bellecoeur where it intersects with the rue Victor Hugo. It hits all the major sites and areas and will give you a great sense of how you want to plan your next day there.
Lyon is an amazing city for eating! There are whole streets devoted to nothing but restaurant after restaurant. Just amazing! We ate mainly at the bouchons, but everything we had, including a Thai lunch one day, was new and different and palate-pleasing. We even ate a salad of pig's ears and wolfed it down!
And Lyon has historic attractions galore from every period of history, a good musée des Beauax Arts, wonderful architecture, a lively river scene, and more. Two days there will just whet the appetite, but I'd say stick with your plan (even though I'm a veteran Paris lover).