Is One Hour Enough Time to Transfer from Gare de Lyon to Gare Montparnasse?
 

I need to meet my husband in Paris at Gare Montparnasse to take a train to Bordeaux. I will already be in Avignon, but think it will make things easier if we are together VS meeting him in Bordeaux. He will be exhausted from the transcontiental flight, so I will be there to handle tickets and rental car when we arrive in Bordeaux. There is a train that would give me one hour to transfer. I'm assuming by taxi. Is that enough time? This will be aound 9:30am in mid September.

Technically, yes.

In practice, tight.

A lot has to happen expeditiously -- your train is on time, you get out of the station quickly, seven other trains full of people wanting taxis have not just arrived, and no traffic problems.

Has he traveled through Montparnasse before? It is a confusing station, and you need an easily identifiable absolutely iron-clad place to meet.

I'd shade on the "no" side of the arguement but Ackis may be right as It's a wee time since I've done it, Montparnasse is a bit of a horror, but if you get a map printed off before you go it can be ok

Thanks for your reponse. I may have to rethink my plan.

Your question is not entirely clear. I assume you are in Avignon taking the train to Gare de Lyon, then transferring to Montparnasse to meet your husband for a final trip to Bordeaux.

It´s a fairly straightforward taxi ride from Gare de Lyon to Montparnasse, I would guess 20 to 30 minutes depending upon traffic. If you already have your tickets in hand and know where to go, one hour should be sufficient time. However, you are not just attempting to catch a train, you will first want to find your husband. I would allow 90 minutes to 2 hours.

You don´t ask but if your husband is arriving CDG after a transcontinental flight, allow 4 hours between his scheduled CDG arrival and your planned Montparnasse departure.

sarastro
That helps a lot! Yes, he is flying in to CDG. His flight gets in at 8:10. Thought he might be able to make a 10:45 train, but I need to rethink that as well.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow, so need to look at different times.

I think you can get a husband-finding gps app which might speed up the process. :-)

Yes, you likely need to re-think this, or at least come up with a great many more details.

First question is how your husband will get from CDG to Gare Montparnasse? The onbvious choice is the Air France bus that goes to GM, dropping him off alongside the station across from the Pullman hotel. If it's a weekday, it can easily take 2.5-3 hours from when his plane lands until he gets to Montparnasse.

Next question is where to find each other. Gare Montparnasse is enormous, and at 9:30 there'll be throngs of people coming out of the place. Finding a place to meet, especially if neither of you is familiar with the station, is going to be a major challenge.

Seems to me that a more practical plan would be to meet in Bordeaux. Your husband could fly to Bordeaux from Paris (he'll already be at CDG), and you could meet him at the airport. To get from Avignon to Bordeaux, you can either take a train, a flight from Marseille, or rent a car in Avignon and drive (about 360 miles). It'll be a lot easier to find a place to meet at Bordeaux airport than Gare Montparnasse, and meeting there saves your husband a lot of extra work.