MarWolve

Trying to decide between a Paris to Montargis or Montargis to Paris barge trip. We're thinking at the end of this trip, we'll travel to the (as yet undetermined) airport in Paris and fly home.
If we end the trip in Montargis, we'll take the train to Paris. And then how to get to the airport? And if we end the barge trip in Paris, the barge will dock at Port d’Arsenal near the Place de la Bastille.
Can someone please advise me which would be the easiest trip to an airport? Thank you!

StCirq

Either way, you end up in the city and have a choice of transportation methods to the airport: taxi, métro and RER, métro and AF shuttle, etc.

But since you haven't determined the airport yet, I don't know how anyone can help you with specifics.

MarWolve

Thanks so much for your quick reply. Is it easier to get to Orly or CDG from the city?

PalenQ

six of one and a half dozen of the other as to which airport is easier to get to - take the one with the cheapest flight IMO - from Bastille you hop the metro to Gare du Nord and change to RER trains to CDG airport, serving terminal 2 directly and from there to others by free VAL people movers to terminal 1 - or take metro from Bastille to Austerlitz station - actually from Port d'Arsenal you can just walk over the Seine bridge to Austerlitz and forego having to take the metro - climbing down and up stairs often - just walk over to Austerlitz and hop direct RER C trains to Orly though at the airport station there is a shuttle bus to the terminals - free or you could from Bastille take a metro to Chatelet-les-Halles or Gare du Nord and take it to Antony station from which a people mover takes you directly into Orly departure terminals.

If coming from Monargis your train should go into Gare de Lyon from where you can get RER trains to CDG airport direct I believe or at least to Gare du Nord for RER to CDG or from Gare de Lyon walk across the Seine bridge to Austerlitz - a very short walk, again eschewing any need for potentially hectic metro transfer or from Gare de Lyon hop RER to Chatelet-les-Halles for RER to Antony

IMO it is always best to be in your departure city the night before - I have seen too many train strikes pop up that could strand you in Montargis - they have not been common recently but can always happen of some kind of service disrpution.

Finally from Montargis there should be shared taxis to either airport but well over $100 p.p. - that is what my son had to pay recently for a shuttle from Orleans to CDG - bout the same distance as Montargis.

Montargis BTW is kind of a home to the Chinese Maoist revolution as Chou En Lai and other revolutionaries after fleeing China held court in this small market town for a few years - lots of Chinese now include Montargis on their trips to France in hommage to a birthplace of the Chinese Peoples Republic - Montargis is also the Venice of the Gatinais - the region it is in for its flower=bedecked canals in the town cente.

I'd definitely end up in Paris if I had a choice - always be in your departure city the night before IMO.

PalenQ

six of one and a half dozen of the other as to which airport is easier to get to - take the one with the cheapest flight IMO - from Bastille you hop the metro to Gare du Nord and change to RER trains to CDG airport, serving terminal 2 directly and from there to others by free VAL people movers to terminal 1 - or take metro from Bastille to Austerlitz station - actually from Port d'Arsenal you can just walk over the Seine bridge to Austerlitz and forego having to take the metro - climbing down and up stairs often - just walk over to Austerlitz and hop direct RER C trains to Orly though at the airport station there is a shuttle bus to the terminals - free or you could from Bastille take a metro to Chatelet-les-Halles or Gare du Nord and take it to Antony station from which a people mover takes you directly into Orly departure terminals.

If coming from Monargis your train should go into Gare de Lyon from where you can get RER trains to CDG airport direct I believe or at least to Gare du Nord for RER to CDG or from Gare de Lyon walk across the Seine bridge to Austerlitz - a very short walk, again eschewing any need for potentially hectic metro transfer or from Gare de Lyon hop RER to Chatelet-les-Halles for RER to Antony

IMO it is always best to be in your departure city the night before - I have seen too many train strikes pop up that could strand you in Montargis - they have not been common recently but can always happen of some kind of service disrpution.

Finally from Montargis there should be shared taxis to either airport but well over $100 p.p. - that is what my son had to pay recently for a shuttle from Orleans to CDG - bout the same distance as Montargis.

Montargis BTW is kind of a home to the Chinese Maoist revolution as Chou En Lai and other revolutionaries after fleeing China held court in this small market town for a few years - lots of Chinese now include Montargis on their trips to France in hommage to a birthplace of the Chinese Peoples Republic - Montargis is also the Venice of the Gatinais - the region it is in for its flower=bedecked canals in the town cente.

I'd definitely end up in Paris if I had a choice - always be in your departure city the night before IMO.

StCirq

<<If coming from Monargis your train should go into Gare de Lyon>>

No, trains from Montargis arrive at Paris Bercy.

Mimar

And it's better to travel downstream than upstream. Upstream the engine has to work against the current, so it's noisier.

MarWolve

I am so glad I asked - a railway strike had not occurred to me. It's too early to book the airfare, but I need to book the barge trip now. I will definitely wind up the barge trip in Paris. Thanks so much for the good advice.

PalenQ

for decades trains from Montargis terminated at Gare de Lyon but due to overcrowding in that terminus due in part I think to the huge success of TGV-Sud-Est service some now terminate at Paris-Bercy, which is actually a long extension of the Gare de Lyon (but you cannot easily walk between the two - have to go outside and take a sidewalk along a busy street - but there is a Bercy metro stop right outside the Bercy train station and it is still not too bad a walk to Austerlitz.

St Cirq - thanks for the correction!

StCirq

No problem.

I wonder if the trains from Orléans come into Bercy too now - will have to check.

PalenQ

No I can say with certainty that those trains, on a whole different line, come into Austerlitz - I have constant contact with friends and former in-laws who take those trains all the time.

Bercy station is very limited in capacity with just a few platforms - overnight Artesia trains formerly were the main trains terminating there but yes others I understand are being diverted - and diverted is a key word as going into this remote station without RER links must seem like second-class to users!

PalenQ

Actually coming into Bercy would be a blessing come to think of it - a really small quiet station with just a few platforms - taxis right out front - nice free bathrooms and a metro station just an escalator ride down from the station's front.