Getting There By Rail
Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer – SNCF (tel: (01) 5390 2020 (Ile de France) or (08) 9235 3535 (national); website: www.sncf.com) is the national railway service, which is fast, efficient and generally reliable. A state-of-the-art high speed railway network (the TGV) spreads out from Paris to most major French cities, including Lyon and Marseilles. Paris has six major stations – Gare du Nord, rue Dunkerque, 10th, Gare de l’Est, Place du 8 Mai 1945, 10th, Gare St-Lazare, place du Havre, 8th, Gare de Lyon, place Louis-Armand, 12th, Gare Montparnasse, boulevard de Vaugirard, 15th, and Gare d’Austerlitz, boulevard de l’Hôpital, 13th. Each station has cafés, restaurants, tabacs, banks, bureaux de change, ATMs and car hire available on the premises or nearby. The Gare de Lyon also has a tourist office. Information on the French rail network is available directly from SNCF or from Rail Europe in the UK (tel: (08705) 848 848; website: www.raileurope.co.uk).
Rail services: Gare du Nord is the French terminus of the international high-speed Eurostar (tel: (03) 2855 8212 or (08705) 186 186 (in the UK); website: www.eurostar.com) train that runs from London Waterloo (journey time – 2 hours 30 minutes). Thalys’ services from Brussels Bruxelles-Midi also terminate here (journey time – 1 hour 30 minutes). The train station also contains Eurostar’s executive lounge. Eurostar also runs from London Waterloo to Disneyland Paris (tel: (01) 6474 5800; website: www.disneylandparis.com).
The Eurotunnel shuttle service is also available for drivers (see Getting There By Road).
Transport to the city: All of Paris’ major train stations are directly linked to the métro network.
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