We will be traveling to Europe in August for our honeymoon. We will have six or seven hours in Paris before taking the train to Venice. Any suggestions on what to do with our luggage while we sightsee for a few hours would be greatly appreciated. We are considering renting a hotel room to keep the luggage in while we sightsee. Is there a cheaper way to store the luggage? The rate for the hotel will be sixty or seventy dollars. Thank you in advance for your help.

Some of the big stations, inluding the Gare de Lyon have left luggage lockers. These are in guarded rooms and luggage is scanned. I can't remember the price, but it will be a small fraction of the cost of a hotel room.

I agree with Geoff..we have done this many times...assume you are arriving by air...if so, claim your luggage and go to the departure rail station first, secure your luggage THERE and then do your sightseeing. Return, claim your luggage and off you go. In the event that your train for Venice is leaving from the Bercy station instead of Gare de Lyon know that the two aren't too far from one another.

Hi Indy,

Congratulations on your wedding. I hope that you will return to Paris.

Thanks for the help. We will be leaving for Venice from Paris Bercy. Does anyone know if they have the "left luggage" lockers? I have been unable to find much info on Bercy, some websites I've seen don't even mention Bercy at all. I believe that until this year, trains did not leave from Bercy to Italy. Possible reason why they were not mentioned. Again thanks for the quick help, I am glad I found this site, the people here are wonderful.

Bercy is a very small station and probably doesn't have luggage storage. Gare de Lyon is very close though (one or two blocks away). You could definitely store your luggage there.

Do you actually have 6 or 7 hours to kill or is that the amount of time between your arrival at the airport and the time your train departs? If this is actually the case, then you really aren't going to have that much time to sightsee. We were in such a situation last year, and had been told that the train luggage storage was not available because of worries about terrorism. We decided to limit our sightseeing to one museum (which in reality was all we had time for). We chose the Jaquemarte Andre (sp??)museum which is a little known gem, and which does not have strict security regulations. We had a bicycle type chain lock with us, and affixed out bags to the coat rack with it. We then walked to a small restaurant where we parked our suitcases close to our table and had a quick meal before making our connection out of town. Obviously this plan works only if you each have only one wheeled suitcase. But, it is a fairly easy solution if you don't want to spend a lot of time just disposing of your luggage.

They have info on the sncf web site about each train station and the services and stores at each but it is really hard to find (it's in the Guide du Voyageur, Mode d'Emploi des Gares).
It does not list any baggage services at Bercy, but there are at Gare de Lyon (both checked and automatic, I believe). However, I don't know if they are operational or not given they can halt them whenever they want for security reasons. Maybe the checked ones with scanners are better bets to be open. The web site even gives that caveat in the description, that they can be closed.

I guess if I were renting a hotel room for that I would just try to find the cheapest hotel room possible near the station. YOu might find something for 50 euro. I'd try to find an address close by in case the train station facilities were closed.

Julies
We arrive at 1:23 at Paris Nord and depart at 13:23 at Paris Bercy
I have been to Paris once, but my wife has not, our true destination is a cruise from Venice to Barcelona. So we are just doing this train trip so we can spend 2 days in London, and then just see Paris briefly. Maybe the Eiffel Tower and some cheese and wine at a cafe.

Are you arriving at 1:23 AM??? (That is what it looks like since you used 24 hour clock for your departure time of 13:23.) What type of sight seeing do you plan in the middle of the night? Even the illuminations are turned off that late. If you are arriving a 01:23, nothing will be open until 10:00 and you will have to be at Bercy before 13:00.

Please clarify your arrival/departure times.

Sorry I totally screwed that up.
We arrive at 1:23 p.m. and depart at 9:23 p.m.

Phew - that's better - I was wondering what you were thinking arriving after 1 in the morning

as the others said - leave your bags at Gare de Lyon and then pick them up before you go to Bercy.

I have the same dilemma. My friend and I are traveling from Paris to Rome and our train is at 7pm. Is it really safe to leave the luggage at the Lyon train station? Is there anything to see in Bercy area. We'd like to stick close by so we dont miss our train.

I forgot to add our hotel check out is at noon so we have some time to kill. Any suggestions?

IMHO it's perfectly safe to leave luggage at the station, but I had heard rumors that a lot of left luggage facilities were closed for security reasons. Does anyone know what's current in the major Paris stations?

Indy, you can dump your gear very handily by taking the express train RER D from Gare du Nord straight to Gare de Lyon. Then you can get over to the Arc de Triomphe on the RER A, have a look around and move on to the Eiffel Tower by bus and/or Métro.

For detailed maps of these neighborhoods, go to

<b>http://www.ratp.info/orienter/plan_telech_quartiers.php</b>

Buy a <b>Mobilis</b> transport pass for Zones 1-2 at the Gare du Nord RER station, and you can ride all over Paris for the rest of the day on the RER, M&eacute;tro, and bus. You can even take the #24 bus from Gare de Lyon to Gare Bercy instead of schlepping your stuff down the block.

For lcc1:

If your hotel is conveniently located, ask to leave your luggage there after your noon check out, and pick it back up on your way to the train later on.

Few French stations have left luggage now, but some of the big Paris stations, including the and Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon, do. The lockers are in a guarded room and luggage is scanned before you put it in a locker.