32, rue des Saints Peres. To travel RER and metro how would we get here?
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Assuming you are starting at CDG airport, you would take the RER to St. Michel station and change to Metro line 4, direction %26quot;Porte d%26#39;Orleans%26quot;, then get off and surface at St. Germain des-pres.
Be prepared for a lot of underground walking and climbing at St. Michel station. The RER B platform is over 2 blocks from Metro line 4 via the tunnels that connect them. The path takes you onto the platform of RER line C along the way which is very confusing so you%26#39;ll need to keep the faith and follow the signs carefully. Lots of up and down stairs.
If you have a lot of luggage, you may want to split the difference and take a taxi for the last stretch. When you get off the RER at St. Michel, walk to the end of the platform in the direction of the rear of the train. Follow the signs UP to St. Michel/Notre Dame. It%26#39;s all escallators to street level and there%26#39;s a taxi stand right there, directly in front of the cathedral. It%26#39;s about a 4 or 5 Euro taxi ride to the hotel.
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We%26#39;ve changed from RER to metro Line 4 at Gare du Nord - it%26#39;s a walk through the main hall of the station (I think you take an escalator up one level?). But no stairs or long traipses that I recall. Your RER ticket should be valid for entering the metro as well.
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Yes. You are correct. There are a lot of stairs and it%26#39;s a lot better than doing the underground path at St. Michel to line 4 (if you are committed to taking the Metro on arrival).
To try to explain my strong preference for this option:
Over the years I have migrated to the St. Michel/Notre Dame station approach because of the simpicity. When you get off the train at St. Michel/Notre Dame from CDG, you are steps away from your hotel for an extra 5 bucks. You come up at street-level (in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral) at a taxi stand and you%26#39;re at the absolute, unquestionably, without-a-doubt CENTER of Paris. Anywhere you want to go from there in central Paris is a 5 Euro taxi ride for up to 4 people with luggage. If you choose to walk from there, it%26#39;s the most beautiful place in the city to start your stay.
You get off the train, you walk toward the back (north) end of the platform and follow the signs to the Notre Dame sortie, and you find yourself at an uncrowded taxi stand without the chaos of Gare du Nord or Chatelet and... there are taxis waiting.
For me, it%26#39;s the path of least resistance. If we%26#39;re really tired and trashed from the journey, this option means no stairs to climb and the taxi ride is 4 Euros, right to our door. All we need to do is communicate our address to the driver and then we relax.
Gare du Nord is big, crowded, busy and confusing. The Metro concourse has really poor signage (It may be a construction thing but it%26#39;s easy to get disoriented). Chatelet is worse and there are no taxi stands.
I don%26#39;t mean to be a broken record on the subject but the utter simplicity of that sortie in the station is worth this long, boring post.
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I know what you mean, Metromole, especially the %26quot;first view%26quot; upon arrival....
Last year, we stayed near Denfert Rochereau... I had used PagesJaunes.fr to look at the pictures up and down the streets and be %26#39;familiar%26#39;... I knew about the Lion de Belfort statue... We came by train and transferred to Line 4... we took the little escalator up, up, up to the surface at ave. du Gen Leclerc... I turned my eyes to the left to be delighted to see that the Lion was -much- closer in reality than the pagesjaunes photos seemed... so our walks to the Denfert metro and RER connections were much shorter than I had mentally envisioned... although not the %26quot;this is the center of Paris!%26quot; view YOU get, I enjoyed that first glimpse of the neighborhood quite a bit...
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Our friends and family have dubbed this our %26quot;prarie dog%26quot; Paris tour. Pop up and get blown away by the view, then submerge back into the Metro and pop up for another one 15 minutes later. They%26#39;ve already seen the postcard views on the web but coming up from a Metro station and all of a sudden %26quot;being there%26quot; hits them. Paris is really bigger than life in that respect if you get my meaning.
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