I'm flying to Paris today! Ahhhh! But I'm not certain I remember where to take the RER and what I should be looking for to go to Chatelet Les Halles. Do the automated ticket machines only take coins? Do I purchase the tickets upstairs at CDG and then go downstairs for the train? I tried doing a search and nothing. I know I saw a thread on this.

Yes, the ticket machines only take coins. There are change machines that will give you coins for notes. For detailed information, including photos, go to www.parisbytrain.com.

Don't panic. there are plenty of signs to the RER.

depending on which terminal you come into, you may need to take the little shuttle train to the RER station. when you get off, you will see signs to the ticket office which is to the right - and to the left you will see the ticket machines. you will need about €8 in coins for a ticket to Chatelet. then you go down the escalators to the left and ahead of you to the trains - they all go to Chatelet and the next one to leave is well signposted.

depending on whether your train stops at every stop, or not, it will take between 30-40 mins to get to chatelet. you may then have quite a long walk before you exit the station as many lines met here.

have a great trip!

Thank you both. Annhig - The apartment I've rented is only 4 minutes from Chatelet but I remember last time I walked for about an hour at Chatelet trying to figure out how to get out of there.
TimS - I've printed out all the info from that website.

The main RER exits are into the Les Halles shopping centre - for the others you'll need to get into the related metro stations. There's a list of the entrances/exits (under "Accès") at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Châtelet_(métro_de_Paris).

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Châtelet_(métro_de_Paris)

Fingers crossed:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Châtelet_(métro_de_Paris)

Micheline - i know what you mean. we got off at the RER stop under chatelet and walked for what seemed miles to get to "our" exit.

It might be easier to take the nearest exit and walk above ground!

Oh damn. Replace the &#233 with Ctrl+Alt+e or Alt+0233 (in Windows).

A rough address of your apartment would allow one of us to identify which exit from Chatelet to take out to the street. If construction is still going on there, the area is walled off into a north and south split. It is a long walk around the construction area if you end up on the wrong side. FYI, if your apartment is North of the station, you'll want to walk through the station to the metro side (north) and exit at the Rambuteau exit (stairs). When you hit the exit, turn right and go about 50 feet. You'll be at the intersection of Rues Turbigo, Montmartre and Montorgueil. If it's south, you can exit directly from the RER and use the street map, as you'll be south of the closed construction area.

At least it was closed in March. I understand construction is scheduled from now until 2016.

The automatic ticket machines also take chip-embedded credit cards on the off chance you have one - otherwise bring your Euro coins with you.

Do a search on here related to the machines that take American credit cards. Someone recently posted a description as to where they are. That said, i was at CDG a couple weeks ago and couldnt locate one, but apparently several tix machine take am cr cards now.

Thanks everyone with a special mention to Patrick (your efforts are very much appreciated).
I'll try to look at the websites but my taxi is coming in 5 minutes.
I'll try to find the shopping centre exit. I'm staying at 60 rue Quincampoix. I'll let you know how I do (if I ever find my way out.

All of the newer ticket machines take banknotes now. But it is often the smaller stations that have been equipped with the new machines for the moment.

I used a chip card. At Chatelet I looked at the exit board, figured out I needed to exit at Lescault and was out in about 7 minutes and walked 5 minutes to my apt. rental. Thank you all so much! Tomorrow I'm going to Giverny. I think I've figured it out thanks to searches on this board.

micheline - thanks for the feedback; it's always nice to know how our suggestions work out.

enjoy Giverney.

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