To Paris from Germany, by car or by train? Need to be trained on taking trains!
 

Living in Frankfurt area, trying to make our way down to Paris over Thanksgiving holidays... have been here for nearly 2 years and can't make heads or tails out of die Bahn - we drive everywhere we go! Now we want to take a vacation from driving but are finding the cost of train travel surprising. How do I get the total fare for a roundtrip from Hbf Hanau to Paris for 2 adults? Why can't I figure this stuff out?????:) Also, if we drove, how available is parking in Paris - thinking of staying near the Lourve at a hotel that doesn't provide parking- and what kind of prices are we looking at? Would it be more budget minded to drive and pay for parking (4 days 3 nights) or just take the train which would seem to me to be less hassel? Thanks for any help you can offer!

www.bahn.de<BR>then click on 'Int. Guests' (Int.=International; these pages are in English.<BR>The train from Frankfurt (Main) to Paris takes about 6 1/2 hours. You can make a reservation and purchase tickets via Internet. Forget about having the car in Paris. C'mon, you can do this!!!

Hi there,<BR>You need to learn to use the train but I am not sure that this is the time to do it. Check out flying. With a 6 1/2 hour train ride and an expensive fare, flying may make more sense. <BR>Just a thought!<BR>Jan

Have you checked out the timetable for this journey on www.bahn.de? By train it takes between 6 hrs 30 min and 8 hrs 56 min. If you want the exact cost of the roundtrip, you better phone to the station and ask them, because they may have special weekendrates, etc. Deutsche Bahn is usually not expensive, even for traveling abroad. If you choose to travel by train, make sure you'll have only 1 change. <BR><BR>If you drive, it is 596 km which - according to www.michelin.com - would be 5 hrs 28 min. <BR>Paris parking information can be found on www.infoparking.com and in the area you mention (Louvre-Rivoli) there are 7 public parkings. There's one (parking Saint Eustache) that gives a tarification: ? 18.30 per day which is really cheap for Paris!

Driving time from K-Town to Paris is about five hours and the road tolls are $60-70 return. There is an Esso station right on the border by Saarbrucken and we made it all the way to Paris and back to that station on one tank (would obviously depend on your car). Driving in Paris was an experience but we arrived and parked and didn't move it for three days. We found street parking that our hotel told us was free (they apparently don't ticket foreign cars on some side streets) and it was fine. Check out www.mapquest.com for exact driving directions there and back. We're going again in December and will drive again. We were originally going to take the train, but now there's four of us going and it just didn't make sense to spend that much on the train when driving will cost about $140 with parking. On the other hand, if it's just the two of you I would probably take the train. The time won't be much more and you can enjoy the trip a little more. I see that there's one trip that will take you to the Frankfurt Hbf and then directly to Paris on an ICE train. Go to your nearest large train station (take the train; it's a great way to practice on a short trip) and see the DB travel agent at the station. They have some great off-season packages for Paris. It's be a good idea if you research this board first and have some ideas for hotels since their book is full of them! Good luck, and if you have more questions about getting to Paris from here or about riding the trains feel free to contact me at the above email address.

I support the advice to go to a railway station and ask there. The German railway is introducing a new tariff set, which includes reductions for two people going together (until now, the second person paid 50%, no idea whether this changed) and reductions for booking the trip a week before taking the train. No idea what deals the French have.<BR>Go there and tell the railway clerk with how many people you want to go at what time. Ask for special deals. The price can be considerable lower than the &quot;normal&quot; price.

www.raileurope.com has all the information you need for a Frankfurt to Paris trip. Click on fares and schedules and all info. is there.<BR>I would highly recommend not driving IN Paris. It's a zoo!!!<BR>Bon voyage