How to go from Paris’ Gare d’Austerlitz Railway Station to the
Hotel Bellan, 20 rue Léopold Bellan, 75002 Paris
Phone 01.40.26.69.90, or +33 140.26.69.90 if calling from outside France
Hotel Marmotte, 6 rue Léopold Bellan, 75002 Paris
Phone 01.40.26.26.51, or +33 140.26.26.51 if calling from outside France

Welcome to Paris. You have just stumbled off your train at the Gare d’Austerlitz. Now you have to make your way to either of these two little hotels, located in Paris’ Quartier Montorgueil.

If you arrived by overnight train, you may wish to shower in the elaborate rest room facility, to the left as you come off the train (private showers and necessary linens can be rented for a modest cost), since your room will certainly not be ready when you arrive.

Our office is in the same neighborhood, a glass doored commerce, between the doors to numbers 2 & 4 of the rue Dussoubs.
Here is a link to the Google neighborhood map. Note that the siting of the métro stations is not accurate, and should be ignored. However, the map accurately represents the streets.


To Make the Trip — Generalities
...you will be taking the Métro.

Locating the Métro
Find the entrance to the métro (straight ahead as you come off the trains). One métro line actually runs through the middle of the station’s vaulted train shed, on a bridge. This impetuous behavior makes the métro in general easy to find, and the impetuous line is the one you want.

Purchasing Your Ticket
Once at the ticket window, or the automatic machines, buy a carnet de billets (pronounced “car-nay' duh bee-yea'” (don't pronounce the 's'). If you wish to say please, it is “see voo play,” is said after the “car-nay” stuff, and will be appreciated.) This is a batch of 10 tickets, valid for travel on all Paris métro and bus lines. Unless you are headed directly for the airport, you will have plenty of chances to use them. They are a bit more than half the price of single tickets, and we will take unused ones off your hands if you have extra when you leave town. The machines will label the tickets with part or all of the following words: Carnet de 10 billets, plein tarif (not demi-tarif”). They are sometimes called “Tickets T,” which is a brand name signifying that they are valid within the urban center, and not for travel to outer suburbs.

General notes about riding the métro:
  • Always keep your ticket until the end of your trip, since it can be inspected at any time by teams of roving tax auditors.
  • If you are worried about being on the correct platform, there is a sign at the center of each platform telling you in which direction the trains are travelling (the last station on the line defines the direction of travel).
  • There are strip maps of the individual line on which the train is travelling over each car door, to help you follow your progress through the system.

Making Your Trip

Step 1, Finding and Riding the Train
Look for signs that lead you to the above-ground line 5, Direction Bobigny. Buy your ticket(s) (see “To Make the Trip,” above), and use one of them to proceed through the turnstiles. Follow Bobigny signs up to the platform. Take any train from that platform. Ride 6 stops, and detrain at République.

Step 2, Changing Trains, Riding the Second Train
Follow orange Correspondence signs, leading you towards métro line 3, Direction Gallieni. These will lead you down a couple of flights of stairs and through some passageways to another platform. Move to the rear (far end) of the platform if you have time on your hands while you wait for the train.

Take the next arriving train from this platform. Get off in four stops, at the Sentier station.

Step 3, Exiting the Métro

  • When you get off at Sentier, walk to the rear of the train.
  • Go up the stairs that you find there, and out to the street.
  • At the top of the stairs, make a “U” turn to your right, and then turn immediately left, into the rue des Petits-Carreaux.

Step 4, Walking to the Hotels

  • Walk a short block on the rue des Petits-Carreaux.
  • Make the first right turn, onto the rue Léopold Bellan.

Both of the hotels are in this block, the Marmotte at number 6, and the Bellan at number 20.

    To Get to Our Office. Instead of turning right onto Léopold Bellan...

    • ...continue straight on Petits-Carreaux (which changes its name to rue Montorgueil) for three more blocks, counting on the left.
    • Make the third left turn, onto rue Tiquetonne, and walk one long block (counting on your left).

    At the end of this block, on the right, is the rue Dussoubs. Our storefront is the unprepossessing (it’s your money) glass door between numbers 2 and 4, on your right after you turn into the rue Dussoubs. If the iron curtain is still down it means we aren't up yet. If the curtain is up, but the front room is dark, it means that we've gone out for coffee, or are in the basement. Try knocking on the glass door with a key or a coin (so that we can hear you from the basement), or looking into local bars. Or wait: we’ll be back soon.

    Our normal opening hours are here.