Reaching Our Paris Office, Making Sure We Are There

This page gives information on the following:

• Reaching our Paris office (immediately below)
• Our regular opening hours
• Making an appointment to guarantee that we are there when you need us to be.
  - Outside of our normal business hours (“Off Hours Appointments”)
  - If you are arriving by train.
  - If you are arriving by plane.
• Timing Your Trip in from an airport.

Our Paris Address:

2, rue Dussoubs, 75002 Paris
paris@bluemarble.org
Phone: +(33) (0) 1.42.36.02.34
Fax: +(33) (0) 1.42.36.92.81
To dial France from abroad, dial the international access code: 00 from any country except the US or Canada, 011 from the US or Canada. Then dial the country code (33), and finally our number, beginning with 1.
To dial from within France, dial 0, and then our number, beginning with 1.

Métro stops, in order of proximity, are
- Etienne-Marcel (line 4), 3 short blocks.
- Réaumur-Sebastopol (line 3, exit “rue St.-Denis”), 4 short blocks.
- Châtelet/les-Halles (lines A, B, D, 1, 7, 11 & 14, exit “Rue de Rambuteau / Rue de Turbigo”), 5 short blocks.

Here is a neighborhood map

Arriving by car, ask your driver to approach via the rue de Turbigo, then the rue Tiquetonne.  Taxis are allowed into the pedestrian zone to drop off or pick up.


Directions:

From Charles de Gaulle & Orly Airports (with hints on coming from Beauvais)
If you are specifically interested in the timing of your trip in from the airport, see our Timing Chart, below.

From Paris’ 7 Railway Stations, Station by Station:

• Gare d’Austerlitz
  Local (bike-carrying) trains from the Loire Valley, all trains from the Limousin and the Dordogne Valley (Souillac, Rocamadour), overnight trains from all points in France and Spain.
• Gare de Bercy
  Overnight trains from Italy, some trains from northern Burgundy (Auxerre).
• Gare de l’Est
  Trains from Alsace, Champagne, and eastern France in general; southern and central Germany, German and Italian-speaking Switzerland, Luxembourg.
• Gare de Lyon
  Trains from southeastern France: Lyon, the Alps, Burgundy, the Jura, Provence, the Côte d’Azur, the Cévennes, Longuedoc, Cataluña. Daylight trains from Barcelona, Italy, and French-speaking Switzerland.
• Gare Montparnasse
  Trains from southwestern France, Brittany, Chartres, Granville and the Channel Islands. Daylight trains from Madrid and San Sebastian. TGV services from the Loire Valley.
• Gare du Nord
  Trains from Flanders, the Low Countries (Belgium, Holland), northern Germany, and England.
• Gare St.-Lazare
  Trains from all points in Normandy except Granville (those come into Gare Montparnasse)
  

Area Map


“When Are You There?”
Our Paris Office Opening Hours

May 3 - September 30
9a (10a on Wednesdays) - 12:30p and 2:30p - 6:30p, Monday - Friday.  10a - 1p on Saturdays. 
At this season, we are often around at other times, and especially on the departure dates of our organized cycle trips:  earlier, later, through the lunch hour, on Saturday afternoons, Sundays....  Enquire if you need to come in outside of our normal hours (we come in without charge, and generally as needed, for riders travelling directly to or from our organized cycle trips).  Even if you are not willing to pay our special “Off Hours Appointment” charge, ask if we are around when you want us to be.  We may be able to tell you we are, in which case you may make an appointment without additional charge....

If you are renting one of our apartments or travelling on one of our cycle trips, and one of us can be scheduled to be in the office for you without having to come in specially (generally the case), there is no charge for a meeting at any time between 9a and 7p, Monday - Friday (or, obviously, during our regular Saturday hours).  If your booking decision depends on it, ask if this service can be provided for free before booking.

October 1 - 17
9a (10a on Wednesdays) - 12:30p and 2:30p - 6:30p, Monday - Friday.  Also open Saturday mornings by appointment (10a to 1p).  However...
...at this season, the office is often covered by a single person.  If you are a client for one of our services, we recommend that you make an appointment (see “Appointments” section).  They are available without charge within the above hours.  They can often be made even on the same day (just call before you come in, to be sure we are there), and are almost always available with 48 hours’ notice.

Appointments are additionally available at other times, but an “Off-Hours Appointment” charge may apply..
See “Appointments,” below, for details regarding making one.


October 18 - May 2
In this, our “off season,” our regular hours are Tuesday through Friday 9a - 12:30p, and 2:30p - 6:30p.
In addition, we open by appointment on Monday mornings (9a - 12:30p) and on Saturday mornings (10a - 1p). 
However...
...the office is often covered by a single person at this season.  S/he may be absent for an outside errand or meeting.  We thus offer appointments in order to guarantee that we are here to receive you (see next section).  They are available without charge within the above hours, but you must pre-pay the service for which you are coming in.  They can often be made even on the same day (just call before you come in, to be sure we are there), and are almost always available with 48 hours’ notice.

Appointments are additionally available at other times, but an “Off-Hours Appointment” charge may apply.
See “Appointments,” below, for details regarding making one.


Appointments

At times when our office is not normally open, or not reliably staffed (winter months), you may make an appointment to come in.  We will then guarantee our presence for you.

Appointments are free for certain services and at certain times, specified by season in the section on our opening hours, above.  During hours when we are normally closed (our “Off Hours”) they imply a charge.  See “Off-Hours Appointments,” below, for details.

If you make an appointment, one of us will be at our office at the time agreed, and will wait 1 hour for you.  After 1 hour, we will consider you to be a “no-show” ( unless you have warned us of your delay), and consider ourselves free to get on with life.  If you tell us you are late, and wish us to wait for you outside our normal opening hours, a fee of 25€ / hour applies.


To Make an Appointment
Tell us by e.mail, paris@bluemarble.org, at what (precise) time you would like us to be in the office for you.  We will confirm to you, so that you know we got the message.

To make an appointment, the service for which you are coming in must be reserved and prepaid.  This will automatically be the case if you are on one of our cycle trips, or if you have rented one of our guest apartments.  Follow this link to see how to pre-pay other services, such as luggage storage.

If you are delayed, and wish us to wait for you, contact us somehow, at the latest by the time of your appointment.  If your new arrival time falls outside of our regular hours for the season / day, it will carry an “Off-Hour Appointment” charge, and is subject to availability (unless the initial appointment was “protected” — see below).

If your appointment is crucial (in the sense, you will really be stuck if you can’t get to us), make sure that it is “protected.”  Many appointments, such as “Off-Hour [paid] Appointments,” are protected automatically, and without additional cost.  But if yours is not, and you have reason to think your travel plans are not reliable (this is the case for anyone arriving by plane late in the day, or shortly before our lunch hour), you may protect it for a fee.

To see whether or not your appointment is protected, and how to protect it if not, see “What is a Protected Appointment?” at the bottom of the page.  Please also specifically consult sections on arriving by train, or, especially, arriving by plane, if either is your case.

Cancellation of an Appointment
If you cannot come in for an appointment you have made, we are grateful for your courtesy in canceling.

Cancellation may be by e.mail (paris@bluemarble.org) or by phone call to our Paris office (see above for the number — if you cancel by phone, get the name of the person who takes your cancellation).

A free appointment not canceled at the latest by the time of the appointment can only be rescheduled at a cost of 25€.  “Off-Hours Appointment” cancellations are charged as below.



Off Hours Appointments

If you need us to open just for you, at a time (or for a service) where free appointments are not available, we can usually arrange it.  This service is subject to availability, and a flat fee of 50€ applies (see next paragraph for lower cost exception).

If you are having us open early or stay late, and your appointment is for a time no more than an hour from our normal opening hours, the fee is only 25€ (though an additional 25€ charge applies if your actual arrival is more than an hour after we would have closed).  It is also 25€ if you wish us to meet you during our normal lunch closing.

The Off-Hours Appointment fee, as well as the cost of the service(s) being reserved, must be prepaid at the time of the reservation. Otherwise no reservation is considered to have been made.  Other conditions for making an “Off-Hours Appointment” are the same as those for a regular appointment, above.

Cancellation of an Off Hours Appointment
You may cancel a pre-reserved Off Hours Appointment without charge until 2 business days (M - Fr except holidays, Saturday until 1p, Paris time) prior to the scheduled appointment.  Cancellation may be by e.mail (paris@bluemarble.org) or phone call to our Paris office (see top of page — if you cancel by phone, be sure to obtain a cancellation code).
Example:  to obtain a full refund, a Friday appointment would have to be canceled by close of business on Wednesday.  A Sunday or a Monday appointment would have to be canceled by close of business on Friday).

On shorter notice, but still prior to our Paris office closing on the last business day prior to your appointment, we rebate half of the charge.  We also rebate half the charge for evening appointments canceled before the end of business hours on the same day.

If you do not cancel your Off-Hours Appointment, and simply do not show up, we will wait one hour after the time for which you made the appointment, then assume you are not coming, and go home, grumbling.  No refund is made in this case.

As a practical matter, this means that if your flight is delayed 6 hours, and you learn of the delay before takeoff, be sure to contact our Paris office (see top of page), and ask us to reschedule your appointment, or at least leave a message on the answering machine, telling us what you know about the situation.  Your initial Off-Hours Appointment is automatically “protected” (see below to see what this means).  So we will naturally accommodate any new request, and rebate half the cost of your initial appointment to thank you for your courtesy.  A new 50€ fee will be due, but at least you avoid paying for multiple extra hours.... See also our note below regarding scheduling appointments off a flight.



Making an Appointment if you are Arriving by Train

We are no more than 30 minutes from any Paris rail station by métro (and on direct lines from 6 of Paris’ 7 railway stations).  You will very probably be on time if you make your appointment for 30 minutes after your train’s arrival.
Allow 45 minutes to get to us from the Gare d’Austerlitz (the only main line rail station not on a direct métro line to our office), or if you are unfamiliar with the Paris métro (even in that last case, 30 minutes will do from the Gare du Nord or the Gare de l’Est).

Late trains are unusual in Europe.  So, provided you allow at least 45 minutes between your train’s scheduled arrival and our close of business (an hour if you are arriving at Gare d’Austerlitz), your appointment is protected without additional cost.  You may pay to protect a tighter schedule if you wish to do so:  see below.

As with all appointments, if you are delayed, and do not inform us of the delay, we will consider you to be a “no-show” an hour after the time of your appointment.  So it’s important that you call, ideally by the time of your appointment, but in all events by our closing time!  If you don’t have a mobile phone, ask the train’s conductor if you can use his.  S/he will let you.  Then go to the bar car, get a glass of wine, relax, and enjoy the scenery....



Making an Appointment if you are Arriving by Plane

Precision in arrival time is simply not part of the package of air travel.  15 minutes late is considered “on time.”  Touch-down determines arrival time, even if you then roll around the tarmac for an hour looking for a gate.  On some carriers, connecting baggage misses its second flight one time in ten.   “Weather-related” delays happen on calm, sunny days.  Immigration can take 2 minutes... or an hour.  A taxi into Paris from Charles de Gaulle can take 25 minutes... or two hours.  The airport train is a reliable 35 minutes... but it can take another 30 to buy the ticket!  And, if we are sitting here waiting for you, you are not the only victim of all this approximation in the name of speed.  We never fly (well, over oceans...).

So... here are some tips and some constraints regarding setting appointments if you are arriving by plane.

Guidelines for Choosing Your Appointment Time
In the table below, we have calculated the average (and normal range) of trip times into central Paris from Paris’ three airports.  We suggest that you use the average values as minima in making your appointment.  As you can see, the “best case” scenario is closer to the average than is the “worst case.”

For example, we suggest that you allow 2 hours to get in from Charles de Gaulle.
If your flight is on time, the trip in from the airport goes smoothly, and you get here a few minutes early, you have time for a coffee at the corner café before we meet.  Not such a bad fate in Paris.  If things take a bit longer, you avoid an extra cost.

But if the prospect of paying 25€ to one of us to sit here for an extra hour doesn’t bother you, and the prospect of hanging out on the corner for 20 minutes does, feel free to schedule things more tightly.  We are not in loco parentis.

If you would like to allow for airline delays, add in another hour.  Then plan on a coffee and a crossant on our market street when you arrive, and before you come over to the store.  This makes sense especially if you are arriving in the morning, and your apartment is unlikely to be ready for occupancy in any event.  What better to do with time in Paris?

If you are timing your trip tightly, or arriving “off hours,” look at the section on “protected” appointments, below, to be sure you know what you must do if you are running late.

Timing Your Trip Into Paris from Any Airport
In what follows, we do not factor in airline delays.
If you are making an appointment, you must allow for these yourself, if you choose to do so (hint:  that would be wise).

Here are the components of the trip from your plane seat to our front door.  The single figure (or the only figure) represents an average.  Where a broad range of values is regularly observed, that range is expressed immediately below it, from fastest time routinely observed, to slowest, in minutes.  For instructions on making the trip into the city from each airport, see above.

• The smaller number in the range represents the theoretical fastest time for the trip segment.  In addition to good luck, this overall timing assumes you know your way around each stage of the process at least a little bit (so, for instance, navigate métro signage with ease), walk at a good clip, know how to use your elbows, and aren’t carrying much luggage.
• The larger number represents the slowest time encountered in normal circumstances.  “Normal circumstances” do not include terrorist threats, strikes, brimstone, etc.  Though they probably should, given the frequency with which these things occur.  Especially brimstone. 
  These times generally correspond to peak holiday or summer travel days, or to difficult weather conditions.  They are far from the norm, but they are often observed:  they probably correspond to travel conditions during 5 - 10% of the calendar year.
• The figures for immigration apply only to arrivals from countries outside the Schengen group, since if you are coming from a Schengen country and have any sense, you should be on the train to begin with, even if that country is Norway.  Note that the United Kingdom and Ireland are the only EU countries not currently (2010) Schengen members.  There is no immigration delay for arrivals from countries within the Schengen group, though the baggage wait is typically 5 - 10 minutes longer in that case, assuming your baggage made the flight.

What Does it Mean to Have a “Protected” Appointment?

If your appointment is protected, we promise to wait for you (or to come back for you, depending on the circumstances), in all cases, and at any hour, provided you tell us what is going on.

If you are to have us meet you at an alternate time, you must call or e.mail, ideally before the hour of your appointment.  In all cases, you must call before our closing time (if your appointment was a free appointment, scheduled during our normal office hours), or within an hour of your appointment time (if your appointment was a paid, “Off-Hours Appointment”).  Otherwise, you are considered to have canceled your appointment.

If your new arrival time falls outside of our normal opening hours (above), the cost of having us stay past closing for you is 25€ per indivisible hour after our normal close of business.  The cost to have us come back to the office for you is the cost of a new, “Off-Hours Appointment,” discussed in the “Off-Hours Appointments” section, above.

If we do not hear from you by our closing time (or within an hour of your appointment time if it was a paid, “Off-Hours Appointment”), we will assume you are a “no-show,” and leave.  Any consequences are yours to bear!   We hope you understand, but we cannot sit and wait for you all night without word, even if your appointment was “protected.”   Too many people simply change their plans, never arrive, and forget to tell us.  We would be fossils by now if we had waited.

Even if you’re not carrying a mobile phone, or a Blackberry, or even a credit card... the guy next to you has a phone.  Offer him a coffee to let you use it.  Or go to your airline’s counter, and make your case.  Someone will help with the loan of a communication devise.


Is Your Appointment Protected?  If Not, How Do You Protect It?

Off-Hours [paid] Appointments ...are always protected, without additional cost.

Free Appointments (appointments during our normal opening hours)
If you are arriving by plane, free appointments are protected without additional cost provided that the time between your flight’s arrival and our scheduled closing time is at least the maximum value from the observed range of normal travel times from your airport.  Example, 3 hours and 30 minutes from Charles de Gaulle.
In this case, we consider that you have done what you reasonably could to ensure reliability.  While things could still go wrong, and do with unnerving regularity, we will cancel our soirée and eat our opera tickets to help.  It’s part of the job.

If you are arriving by plane, and the time between your flight’s arrival and our scheduled closing time that day is less than the maximum observed range of normal travel times in from your airport, you have two choices:

1. Take Your Chances.
   You like to gamble.  But your innate consideration for others means you don’t want your risk-taking to impact those around you.  We thank you for that, and we will not block anyone’s evening (or lunch) for you.
   
   If you arrive on time, all is well.  If you are delayed, feel free to call our Paris office to find out if someone is willing be here for you. The full “Off-Hours Appointment” charge will apply, if anyone is willing to wait.  But if we all have dinner engagements / theatre tickets / hot dates, well, you fully understand.  You will find a place to sleep at your own expense, with no refunds due by us for contracted services like nights in apartments, or train tickets for trains you can no longer catch.  We will be happy to see you in the morning, you’ll feel less stressed after a night’s sleep, and we will help you as we can with any alternate plans you may wish to set up.
   
   
2. Pay Us to “Protect” the Appointment.
   In this case, you make your appointment, presumably for the end of our workday, allowing at least the minimum value from the range of observed travel times from your arrival airport.  You then pay us 25€ to “protect” it (you, really) from the vagaries of airline travel.
   
   That means:  you pay 25€ for our guarantee that we will wait for you.  If you arrive no later than one hour after our closing time, nothing further is due (but you don’t get your 25€ back, even if you arrive before our closing time).  If you arrive even later, you will pay an additional 25€ per indivisible hour of waiting time to the person who is waiting for you (so, if you arrive an hour and 5 minutes after our normal closing time, you will pay 25€ more, and so on).
   
   Of course, if you are badly delayed, you should call and re-schedule.  This will be less expensive than having someone wait for you for 6 hours.  And we will come back to the office for you whenever you arrive, even if that is 2a.  The initial 25€ was the charge to block one of us from making evening plans, an additional 50€ will be due for the new off-hours appointment.  But at least you will have a place to sleep / get your luggage back / whatever.
   
   This may strike you as unfair, since you will pay us an extra 25€ even if, in the end, you arrive within our opening hours.  The rationale is that, given your arrival schedule, someone will have had to keep his evening open, regardless of when you actually arrive.  We bribe him to do so.
   
   

Free appointments are protected for all passengers arriving by train, without cost, provided our closing time is at least 45 minutes after the scheduled arrival of your train (an hour after if your train is arriving at the Gare d’Austerlitz).
If you wish to time things more tightly, we’re game:  you may choose either option (1) or option (2) from the plane section, above.