How to go from Paris’ Airports to the
Hotel Bellan or the Hotel la Marmotte in one easy lesson.
Both are located in the rue Léopold Bellan, 75002 Paris.
The Bellan is at number 20.  It’s phone number is +33 (0) 140.26.69.90
The Marmotte is at number 6.  It’s number is +33 (0) 140.26.26.51
Our office is at 2, rue Dussoubs, 75002 Paris. The office phone is +33 (0) 142.36.02.34


From Roissy, a.k.a. Charles de Gaulle Airport
From Orly Airport
From Beauvais Airport
Ordering Airport Train Tickets, from Charles de Gaulle or Orly



Introduction
Welcome to Paris. You have just de-planed, and you are still cursing the Wright brothers. Now you have to make your way to the hotel.

But first, you must figure out at which airport you have landed.

Most intercontinental flights come into Roissy, the name the locals give to Charles de Gaulle Airport.  More often than not, you will be in Terminal 2.  But USAir, United, Lufthansa, and several Asian / African / Middle Eastern carriers use terminal 1, instead.  Budget and charter lines use Terminal 3 (Air Transat, Corsair...).

The other option (Paris’ other “real” airport) is Orly.  Not much intercontinental service, but many intra-European flights.

If you were on a “low-cost” carrier, such as Ryanair, you may have landed at Beauvais.
Beauvais is not really a Paris airport at all:  it is in the eponimous town, 90 minutes northwest of the city in normal traffic.  You can go by train to some foreign countries faster than you can get to Beauvais.

No one at Blue Marble has ever used Beauvais Airport, so we only know of it by reputation.  (We take trains within Europe, even when they cost more — we all have our luxuries).  But we tell you what we know about making this trip.


Buying Tickets for the Airport Train (Orly or Charles de Gaulle)
If you wish to buy a ticket for the appropriate airport train through us, to avoid dealing with the issue in your post-flight fog (or to avoid ticket lines which can stretch to an hour in summer), you may do so.  The cost is approximately 1.5 euros more than you would pay locally.  Here is how to order tickets for the airport train.

If you do not already have your airport train ticket, get some euros from an airport exchange place before you get to the ticket counter.  Credit cards without French “chips” are not accepted at all windows (nor in ticket machines).



From Roissy / Charles de Gaulle Airport
These are both names for the same place.  The French do this a lot.


Step 1.  Getting to the Airport Train.

From Terminal 1.  From the baggage pick-up, carefully follow signs for Paris Par Train (Paris by train).  These will direct you to an elevator bank, hidden behind a wall between exit doors 34 and 36.

The elevators here have only two buttons:  the one corresponding to where you are, and the other one.  Push the other one.  The elevator will take you down a few levels, and let you out by the opposite door.

In front of you, and up a ramp, is a train platform belonging to something called the CDGVAL.  Go there.  Board the next departing train (really a people mover:  a rubber-tyred, 2 car shuttle with no driver), which may depart from either side of the platform.  Ride 2 stops, to Roissypole, the name of the station for trains to Paris (the RER / métro trains).  Two more stops would bring you to the “Gare TGV” (long-distance trains), and to terminal 2.

When you exit the CDGVAL people mover, and go up a stair / escalator, you will find yourself in the hall of a much bigger train station.  If you already have your ticket, turn left and then right to get to the platforms / trains.  If not, turn right to get to the ticket office.

Your train to Paris will leave from the far platform (any train on either side of the far platform will go to Paris).  Now go on to Step 2.

From Terminal 2.  Signs in your terminal will point you to RER / TGV or Gare RER / TGV.  Don’t panic if the “RER “ and the “TGV” are inverted:  they are still pointing to the same thing.  This is the rail station.  Paris par Train also works.  To be sure you are walking in the correct direction:  as you face the street in front of your airport terminal, the railway station is to the right of terminals 2A, 2C, and 2F; to the left of 2B, 2D or 2E.

When you get to the trains, and are given a choice between RER and TGV, choose RER.  This is the train into Paris.  You will go down two levels to get to the main station hall, and another, third, level to get to the tracks.  Be careful when you reach the platform:  trains depart from both sides.  If two trains are present (on both sides of the platform), look at the departure boards, which give each train's departure time, to see which is leaving first.  Also, be sure to look along the platform:  short trains park at one end, and you may not even realize that the train is sitting in the station until it has pulled out!  Now go on to Step 2.

From Terminal 3.  Signs in your terminal will point you to RER / TGV or Gare RER / TGV.  Don’t panic if the “RER “ and the “TGV” are inverted:  they are still pointing to the same thing.  This is the rail station.  Paris par Train also works, as does Roissypole.  A bit of a walk will bring you to the train station.


Step 2.  Buying a Ticket, Riding the Train to Paris.

All RER trains from the airport rail stations go the same place.  If you do not already have a ticket, buy one in the ticket office, a level up from the trains.  Keep this ticket safe, since you will need it several times during the journey.

Take the first train - they run about every 10 minutes.  Locals make about 10 stops on the way into town; expresses run non-stop.  Despite this, the first train to depart is the first to arrive:  the “expresses” just run slowly, following the locals on their same tracks.  We nonetheless suggest waiting for the express if one is announced:  the local can be the object of pickpocketing scams which are harder to perpetuate on a train without stops.

After a 30-minute ride, your train goes underground and stops at a station called Gare du Nord, where it will idle for a minute or two.  Start paying attention here.  Stay on board, and ride one more stop, getting off at Châtelet - Les Halles.

Special case:  if literally everybody gets off your train at the Gare du Nord, and an announcement is made, it means that there is a strike.  These are different from North American versions.  They don’t stop trains from running, they just mix them up a bit.  Their only practical effect is to make you change trains here at the Gare du Nord.

You can ask us about this entertaining cultural phenomenon when you hook up with us.  In the mean time, get off, go upstairs one flight, and follow signs which read Direction Porte d'Orléans, or M 4 Porte d'Orléans.  These will lead you through a set of turnstyles (use the same ticket you used at the airport), along some corridors, and to a métro / underground / subway platform.  Take any train that comes, and ride it 6 stops to the Les Halles station.  Leave the station via the exit marked Sortie Rue Rambuteau, Rue Turbigo.  You are now in the middle of Step 3, below.


Step 3.  Getting from the Train to Your Hotel.
You have now detrained at the Châtelet - Les Halles station.

• If you are coming from Charles de Gaulle, and are not already at the back of the train, walk along the platform, towards the back of the train you just left.  Take any escalator or the stair on the rear third of the platform up (one flight).  If coming from Orly, the instructions are the reverse:  walk to the front third of the platform before going up (you have come from the opposite direction).
• At the top of the stairs or escalator you will see dark blue Sortie (exit) signs, with different sorties indicated. The one you want is labeled Rue Rambuteau, Rue Turbigo.  Follow the signs across the mezzanine concourse to get to it.
• Go through the ticket barriers you find barring your way (using the same little ticket you used at the airport), and go up another flight of stairs / escalators.
• Keep following the Rambuteau/Turbigo signs, which will lead you outside after another few escalators, stairs, and the like.  You would now expect to be on the 7th floor of some building, but you are just at street level.

If the visual aspect of a neighborhood map would be helpful at this point, you may print one here.  The marker points to our office.  The satellite version is clearer than the street map, as it does not show the underground highway network, extensive in this neighborhood.  Note that the localization of the métro stops on this map is not generally accurate.

When you come outside into the air, you are on a pedestrian street, rue Rambuteau.  Turn right.  In front of you are a newsstand and a large church.  We'll let you figure out which is which.  Slink along the wall that is now to your right, rounding the corner, and leaving the church to your left.

Straight in front of you now, between two cafés, a semi-pedestrian street leads away (the rue Montorgueil). Take this.  Your fifth left is the rue Léopold Bellan.  Turn left onto this.  Both hotels are on the right hand side of the street, in this block.  The Marmotte is at number 6, the Bellan at number 20.


To Get From the Hotels to Our Office

A short walk.
• Turn left out of the front door of your hotel, and right at the corner, onto Montorgueil.
• Now make the 2nd left, onto rue Marie Stuart. Walk one block to the end of the street.
• Turn right onto rue Dussoubs. Our office is on the left, the glass door between 2 and 4.
Our normal opening hours are here.



ORLY AIRPORT

Orly airport is in a state of flux.  While all inter-continental airlines are currently in the south terminal, there is discussion of moving some to the west one (those are Orly's only two terminals).  The following information assumes that you arrive at the south terminal, or Aerogare Sud.  If you arrive instead at the west terminal, follow signs to reach OrlyVal (“Paris by Métro”), take the automated people-mover to Antony (the first stop), and start reading these instructions in the 2nd paragraph of step 2, below.


Step 1.
When you exit the baggage pick-up area and pass through customs at Orly Sud, you will find yourself inside the terminal building, facing the street.  Outside the terminal, above the roadway on a viaduct, is a green-and-white train.  This is what you want to ride.  The little ticket hall is inside the terminal building, a bit to the left in the corridor that you are standing in once you clear customs.

If you do not already have a ticket, use one of the multi-lingual machines to buy one to Paris.  You may need euros to do so:  not all foreign credit cards are accepted.


Step 2.
Go up the escalator which leads to the platform, and get on the first train.  They all have the same destination:  the Antony railway station, and this is where you want to go.  It is the 2nd stop, after Orly-Ouest. The total ride takes about 10 minutes. 
Do not be alarmed when the train reverses direction at Orly-Ouest - it is still doing what you want it to.

When you reach Antony, get off.  Go through the turnstyles, along the short moving walkway, and up the escalator to your left.  This brings you to the platform for Paris.  Walk towards the left when you reach the platform if there is no train waiting, since you will need to be at the far front end of the approaching train when you get off.

Take the first train that comes.  They all go where you need them to.  Depending on whether you are on an express or a local, this trip will take between 20 and 30 minutes.

When the train goes underground, as it enters the Denfert-Rochereau station, start paying attention.  You have 4 more stops after Denfert-Rochereau:  Port-Royal, Luxembourg, St-Michel, and Châtelet-Les Halles.


Step 3.
When you reach the Châtelet / Les Halles station, walk along the platform to the front of the train (if that is not where you were riding).  Take the stairs or escalator up.  At the top of the stairs or escalator you will see dark blue Sortie (exit) signs, with different sorties indicated.  The one you want is labeled Rue Rambuteau, Rue Turbigo.  You will be standing in front of this exit as you reach the top of the stairs coming up from the platform.

You are now at the 3rd bullet point Step 3 of the Charles de Gaulle instructions, above.  Follow the rest of those instructions to get to your hotel.



BEAUVAIS AIRPORT
Beauvais is not really a Paris airport at all:  it is in the eponimous town, 90 minutes northwest of the city in normal traffic.  By contrast, you can get to the center of London by train in an hour more.  From central Paris it is actually faster to go to Brussels by train than to go to Beauvais Airport.

No one at Blue Marble has ever used Beauvais Airport, so we only know of it by reputation.  But here is what we know about making this trip.

A bus operates between the airport and the Porte Maillot, a large traffic circle on the eastern edge of the city, connecting to most flights.  From Porte Maillot, métro line 1 runs into the city.  Connecting to line 4 at the Châtlet station (direction Porte de Clignancourt), and taking this for one stop to the Les Halles station, would put you in the middle of Step 3 of the Charles de Gaulle instructions.  Leave the platform via the exit at the front of your train, and you will come outside on the rue de Rambuteau, as described above.

Or, there is an hourly train between the town of Beauvais (not the airport) and the centrally-located Gare du Nord, taking 65 minutes to make the trip.  The trip from Beauvais airport to Beauvais station is about 20 € by taxi; there is also a shuttle bus, but it does not meet all flights.  From Gare du Nord to Les Halles is one stop on line B of the RER.  This would put you at the start of Step 3 of the Charles de Gaulle instructions, above.