We arrived Thursday morning at 8 AM from Boston on Delta 243, a 767-300ER, a semi-antique that we hope flies forever since it is 2-3-2 seating. Great crew, reasonable food, miserable seats in the back.

BORDER CONTROL AND CUSTOMS
We have never come to Paris in the summer, so I was naively surprised that so many others had also chosen to do so . It was a long walk from the plane to Border Control but not proportionately longer than the lines going through border control. Allow 15 minutes from the plane, then an hour in line to get your passport stamped. The good news is that by the time you are through, your luggage will have arrived. There is only one way out of the baggage hall, to your left as you face the carousels. This is by no means obvious. Once through the Douane, you are free to proceed.

RER/SNCF
We were in no hurry because we couldn't even leave our luggage at the apartment until 11, so we walked to the station. You can take a cart the whole way only by using elevators at a couple of points. They won't fit on the escalators.

The ticket area was absolutely packed; both machines and the ticket windows had long lines. The machines were clearly marked in three languages that they only accepted cards with Puces -- chip and pin -- but even those with the right card seemed to be taking forever. The young woman at the ticket window happily sold me RER tickets and a couple of carnets using my signature card. LEARNING POINT: my signature card has been accepted everywhere I have used it -- Franprix, restaurants large and small, takeout food.

I am happy that I bought the carnet because LEARNING POINT: our carefully-saved old Metro tickets no longer work, though we have saved and used tickets from trip to trip for years. The new ones have a price at the bottom.

Anyway, a smooth trip to Gare du Nord where we easily got a taxi. We have only ever tried it fro Eurostar before and encountered long lines. Between Eurostar arrivals it was simple: many taxis, few passengers. Anyway, we were able to drop the luggage. After a nice lunch and a walk, we hit our beds for a long afternoon nap.

very useful info, ackislander for first timers in Paris.

it's worth knowing I think that if you are getting the Eurostar from St Pancras, the Paris tourist board have a desk at which you can buy museum passes, RER & metro tickets, etc.

There is also an ATM dispensing Euros.

Ackislander (or anyone else who knows): I too have a bunch of old carnet tickets that I saved and expected to use for my next trip -- can the old ones be exchanged for the new?

(Also, perhaps a moderator might give this thread a "France" tag.)

<i>can the old ones be exchanged for the new?</i>

The designation <i>carnet</i> means nothing other than a booklet of tickets. Any type of ticket, purchased in groups of 10, can be called un carnet. Tickets are good until used. Métro tickets are called tickets t+. If you have an old métro ticket (or any type actually) that is not allowing you access to the métro, exchange it at the Information window for a new one. There is no fee to exchange unused tickets.

Yes, you can exchange old unused tickets at any information window at a metro station.

I love the fact that information flow is two way here!

I assumed that because the old tickets were bought before prices went up, well, tant pis pour vous, M. Ack!

You have made me quite happy considering the amount of money involved!

Merci beaucoup a tous!

One time we took the train from the airport, the train stopped at a station, everyone got off but us and another couple. Then we figured out we had to change trains. We hurridly left the train with out luggage and got one another. How can we avoid this in the future? Thanks.

Our luggage not without.

<i>How can we avoid this in the future?</i>

Take a taxi.

You cold also check the RATP website to see if there is work planned on the RER B line north of Paris which is usually the reason why you must change trains:

www.ratp.fr

The destination is marked on the front of the RER trains. It's not even in code anymore.

How can we avoid this in the future?

Take a taxi. This is exatly, right !!!


If you have money to buy your air tickets and pay your hotels or apartments you must be have 50 euro to pay your taxi, right ?
We never gonna do this other way, this is door to door service, common people....and you wanna save 1.50 for use old tickets, i bet you have money to buy the new one..

Tibor, in your month on Fodor's you haven't made a single useful suggestion.

All you have done is post a racist picture on your profile and make inane (you won't know that word because your English is so feeble), cretinous, or unpleasant comments to others.

In your most recent screed (look it up) you can't even separate issues raised by two different posters. Crawl back under your rock.

Ackislander....

i can't you are on my way....lol

The Tibor creature keeps appearing about every 2 months under a different name.

Anyway, I would just like to explain a small detail that many people do not seem to understand. The RATP and the SNCF are totally different and we are just happy that they accept to share their rails on a few routes. (Speaking of which, many people have been mystified by having to change RER trains at Gare du Nord on strike days. That's because it is where the RATP takes over from the SNCF, and they do not have the same unions or the same strikes. But with luck, most of you will never be there on a strike day.)

The important point is the ticket machines. People are always giving advice about these (mostly to Americans who are the odd man out in card payments). It appears that <I>some</I> SNCF machines (notably at CDG) actually do accept certain magnetic strip cards, but only if the attached bank has accepted the risk. Which brings us to the matter of cash payments. "Why don't the machines accept banknotes?" Well that is true of the SNCF machines, and people find this out at CDG and also when taking the RER C to Versailles (also operated exclusively by the SNCF). Frankly, SNCF tickets can cost more than 200€, so I completely understand why they don't want to accept banknotes. Even the machines for local tickets sell long range Navigo passes, which can cost more than 80€ for a month.

However, most RATP (metro) machines now take banknotes with no problem at all.

So just be aware of what kind of machine you are using.

Personal attacks are not allowed on the Forum. I have reported your last post as such, Tibor, and I hope you are banned. I know you will pop up again under a different name, but it would be a relief to have you gone even for a little while.

Tibor appears to be male this time.

Thanks for the distinctions between RATP and SNCF. These need to be widely repeated. I am going to refer to it in another thread, our trip, to Chartres, where not knowing it made us miss our train! An immediate practical application!

We, along with everyone else on Eurostar, old, young, first class etc were once left at a suburban station, maybe the one north of St Denis, when station workers at Gare du Nord decided on a greve. There was no information about what to do, so we all followed the apparently knowledgeable and made it into Paris on the RER. Some of the elderly travelers had a difficult time carrying cases up and down stairs. Some of the becs fins probably hadn't carried a case before. But they did let us use our Eurostar tickets for the remainder of the journey.