Hi thanks for taking the time to read my post. I will be in Paris the 19th of Sept. I have a Eurail pass and will be leaving France for Germany. I understand that the "Gare de' L' Est" services Germany and the east. My train leaves for Munich from there. I have to get there from Charles de Gaulle in at least 2.5 hours time. I am choosing to take the taxi as it is the quickest way and about $50.00 or so. I dont know if "Gare de' L' Est" is the eastern train station, if I say "Gare de L' Est" will the cab driver know thats where I want to go. Should I write it down, is this a common destination,. is it heard of? I just dont want to end up in the wrong place. I dont know any French (though I'm picking up a phrase book after this) and I've been to Europe so I'm sure these questions sound extremely simple. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. Green

oops....I mean I've never been to Europe before..

The Gare de l'Est, which does service Germany, is widely known. If your taxi driver does not know how to get you there take another taxi. It is a good idea to write your destination.

Say "Gair duh lest" Wouldn't hurt to write it down in block letters on a card also. For more Paris information e-mail me – [email protected]

Unless your French pronunciation is really awful, any cab driver should immediately understand "Gare de l'Est." <BR>As for your time window, under normal cicumstances, 2.5 hours should be more than sufficient. Just in case, such as a delayed flight, you might write down on a slip of paper "Gare de l'Est - depart a 13h47" (or whatever time your train is scheduled to leave.) That way he would know not to dawdle if time is short. Have a great trip!

If you follow Fred's pronounciation you'll probably miss your train.

Even for simple words, if you don't speak the language very well, it is really best simply to write it down -- I'd just write "Je vais à la gare de l'Est" (I'm going to ....), it's very common to write destinations for a cab drive. Many Parisian cab drivers are not French, either, and sometimes we have trouble understanding each other even though we are both speaking French. And I concur with the last post, gare is NOT pronounced "gair", that's not even close. I don't think you need to get into the departure time as cab drivers don't have any reason to dawdle, they always want to finish trips as soon as possible for their own reasons. Also, it probably won't cost US$50, so that's a bonus (probably more like $35-40). Not to confuse you as a cab is easiest (and best if you have luggage), but you could take the suburban lightrail (RER) train directly from CDG to Gare du Nord for only about $6 or so, and Gare de l'Est is only 2-3 blocks from Gare du Nord. You wouldn't have to worry about traffic that way and if you have light baggages, that's not a bad walk--should be easy if you have a reasonable map of Paris. YOu can switch to a regular metro line (line 4) at Gare du Nord to get to Gare de l'Est also, it may not be worth the trouble vs walking, but I think it's not too far a transit.

The "taxi" solution is the most confortable and don't worry too much, 2.5 hours is enough time. I paid 380 FF from CDG to Gare de L'Est and 210 FF from Gare de L'Est to CDG.(The fare is different weekdays from weekends.) <BR> <BR>And, as a cute detail, I was luck enough to get a nice,voluble driver on my trip from the airport to the train station.(Maybe the fact that it was 7:00 am on a Sunday and the roads were desserted had something to do with this.) <BR> <BR>He really tried to carry a conversation with me even if my French is limited to around 50 words and phrases. Anyway, his being nice helped me get a good start for my trip after the overnight flight. <BR> <BR>