Traveling to Paris

 

By plane 

CDG Airport
Paris has two airport, more or less equally distant from city center:
  • Charles de Gaulle (CDG): north of Paris, CDG is the main international airport. The airport has a direct connection with Paris metro network through the RER B which runs, approximatively, very 15 minutes and takes about 25 minutes to take you in Paris city center for 10€. You can also take a taxi in which case it will take you about 30-35 minutes for a flat rate of 50 or 55€ depending where you are going in Paris. 
  • Orly airport (ORL): South of Paris, this airport is mostly used for domestic and short-haul flight. Getting from Orly airport to Paris is a bit more complicated using public transportation. You can either catch the "orly-val" train that connect you to the RER / metro network or the orlybus that will take you to Paris center, for more detail see here.

By train

Train station
Paris has 5 major train stations. The easiest way to book a train is directly on the French National Railway compagny SNCF website.
Each and every train station in Paris connects to specific locations amons which the mains are
  • North Station: from Belgium (Brussels, Liège) Amsterdam and Germany (Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Essen) all through Thalys trains
  • East Station: connecting to Germany (Francfort, München, Stuttgart) though ICE trains and Switzerland (Bâle and Zurich)
  • Lyon and Austerlitz Stations: to south of France, Italy (Genova, Roma, Milano) and Spain (Madrid, Barcelona)

By car

Highway in France
As for most of largest cities, we strongly not recommend you to drive a car in Paris as traffic it may be very congestive in week and during working hours especially.
Nevertheless Paris is connected with some the main largest French motoways especially 
  • A1 highway: from the north, connecting to CDG airport, Lille and Brussels ;
  • A4 highway: from the east, from Reims, Metz, Strasbourg and Germany ;
  • A6 highway: from the south, from Lyon and Marseille ;
  • A10 and A13 highways: from the west up to Brittany.

Beware that French highways are tolled; fares depends on distance and specific route. 

Transportation Within Paris

Public transportation in the city of Paris and its surroundings are very efficient. The public agency RATP offers both a vast numbers of bus routes, 15 metro lines, 8 tramways, 5 "RER" (short distance trains) and 8 train routes. 

A maps of the metro network (metro, RER and trains) are available in each and every metro station and in a vast majority of bus stop.