Paris Metro and Bikes
Sep 10th, 1999, 09:33 AM
#2
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Jeff: If you are in terminal #2, leave by gate 28 and catch the RER shuttle to the station. If you are in terminal #1, it's (station) right there. <BR> <BR>Get on the "RER-B" train and that should take you to the Metro station "St. Michel/Notre Dame" which is just across the river on the Left Bank. Switch to "RER-C" heading toward Orly (airport) and get off at the first stop being Gare d'Austerlitz. You could stay on one more stop after St. Michel and get off at Cluny/La Sorbonne and take that Metro that ends two stops away at Gare d'Austerlitz. Either way it will work out. Travel time? I'll estimate 30 minutes or so. <BR> <BR>Good luck!
Sep 10th, 1999, 09:40 AM
#3
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Yuck, this is ugly. The only train from CDG into Paris is a suburban train (RER). CDG is the end of the line, so no problem getting on (fairly empty cars). If you are on a morning train, which is undoubtedly the case, you will soon have lots of 'burbanites getting on for the trip into Paris. You have to change trains at Pont St Michel (from B train to C train) and the halls are crowded. It can be done, but it is going to be a fight - especially trying to get on the C train to Gare d'Austerlitz. Imagine a bicycle on the T or the IRT on a Monday morning; ugly, ugly, ugly. I've never seen a 'baggage car' on these trains where you could store your bike; I've seen bikes in the passenger cars at the end of the car with their riders. If you've got baggage, too, even a backpack, you are going to be one sorry puppy. You also have to get the bike on the shuttle bus from the airport to the RER station. These shuttles are PACKED PACKED PACKED, the MTA at 9:00am. Hopefully, someone has an alternative idea...or are there baggage cars?
Sep 10th, 1999, 01:01 PM
#4
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There are rules, you can't just take a bike on the metro/RER whenever and wherever you want. Unless things have changed around there in the last year, you can never take one on the regular metro line except on line 1 (the one running between the Arc de Triomphe and Gare de Lyon) on Sundays before 4:30 pm. On the RER A and B lines, you can't do it during rush hour (ie, before 9 am or 4:30-7 pm weekdays) and there may be some restrictions on stations where you can get off within the city limits (used to be you couldn't even do it at all within the city until end of 1998--like I think you used to only be able to take a bike on/off at Gare du Nord and Cite Universitaire and Gare de Lyon on lines A/B, but maybe that's changed, you'll have to ask). Also, on the RER, you can only do it on cars marked so (a sign with a bike in a circle). I think you can take one on line C (the one to Austerlitz) without restrictions, so it should be okay to get on at CDG (within permitted days/hours and on the right car) and transfer underground from line B to line C and then get out at Gare Austerlitz. The whole trip will take probably close to an hour.
