traveilngts

A family of 4 plus one Grandmother will arrive in Paris at the Gare du Nord.
Any helpful hints or specific advice about getting through the station and to our hotel, the Hotel du Palais Bourbon (49 Rue de Bourgogne) in the 7th.
We do NOT want to use the metro this time since we'll have kids and luggage.

Thanks for your expertise.

avalon

The easiest and for that many people will most likely be no more expensive than the bus or the metro will be a taxi. As you enter the station from the train , turn right and follow the taxi sign. The stand is right outside the door.Doubt if the fare should be any more than 15-20 Euro. You might have to wait a bit for a larger cab or van with that many people

Christina

well, the metro would be extremely complicated on that route, anyway, so I'm glad you don't intend to do that. I'd take a taxi, also. It's not that far, a taxi can't be that expensive. If you don't want to do that, you can check some of the airport shuttles to see if they do transfers from train stations.

There is only one bus line that goes anywhere near that hotel (the 69), and it doesn't go near Gare du Nord. I don't think the bus would be much easier than the metro, but to take it, I think you'd have to take the no. 38 from Gare du Nord south to around rue de Rivoli and catch the 69 on it.

StCirq

Absolutely take a taxi.

kerouac

The taxi stand is on the left side of the station facing the tracks.

RM67

Or, to make more sense to someone getting off the train -

the tax rank is to the right of the station.

RM67

taxI!

janisj

If I was traveling alone and had no luggage -- I'd STILL take a taxi for that journey.

kerouac

I wouldn't. And nobody said how old granny is. If she is under 70, she should be spry.

greg

Be sure to use a taxi using the regulation tariff. There are taxi regulation approved surcharges for luggage, pickup at a train station, exceeding certain number of people, etc. However, I can pretty much count on being approached by taxi "coordinators" proposing to give me a deal at many train stations frequented by foreigners arriving in the city for the first time.

In my experience, the taxis obeying the regulation are found at the taxi stand, there are usually queues unless it is off hours, they always give an estimate close to what the hotel or the guide books say. I find the cost estimate as a pretty effective shibboleth.

Scam taxis are not necessarily obvious. They may be around the official taxi stands and have "taxi" sign on top of the car. They sometimes flash an "official" tariff chart. If you know how much it should cost, you know you are about to be scammed if you go along with the driver. More often, the taxi drivers suddenly cannot hear the sentence "how much is it to ....?" and want to grab my luggage and put them into the trunk. This is another clue that I am about to get scammed. Sometimes, the coordinator points to the accomplices' taxi as having no waiting queue.

Gare du Nord is one of the many stations I was approached by taxi "coordinators." I didn't see any last year, however. I don't know if the city figured out a way to clean up these scumbags, or I was there during their break.