Trains in Paris

Paris has one of the best train transport system in the world. Find all the information you need to travel or commute by train at this site:

Paris By Train

The French National Railway Company is SNCF and the official website Transilien.com provides detailed information on all forms of public transport (Train, RER, Metro, Tram, bus) in Paris urban and suburban, routes, maps, journey planner and tickets prices.

The local suburban train system is called the RER and all the information on ticket price, schedules, route planner and even real time schedules can be found at

http://www.ratp.info/

The site also shows news of ongoing disruption of routes due to repair work or any other reason.

The central two zones of Paris are served by Metro trains (named by numbers) and all the 6 zones are served by RER trains, names by alphabets.  It might be suitable to use a combination of both to go to a certain place using the same ticket, as the RER and metro stations are interconnected and the route can be planned using the maps.

It is also possible to subscribe to SNFC news by email or mobile sms, and you will be informed of strikes (very common in France!) in advance.

When the regular Metro and RER trains stop late in night, the RER route is served by the night buses, called Noctilien :

With 42 bus routes, the Noctilien services allow you to travel  throughout
the night anywhere in the Ile-de-France region.

Tourists can find good information about travelling in Paris in this page of RATP: http://www.ratp.info/touristes/

Maps of Paris

A lot of traffic lands at this site with the keyword search “Map Paris” , “Map Bus Paris”, etc. 

A few facts about Maps of Paris and their use:

The RATP site of Paris includes information on local trains, buses, trams and local maps. The site is:

http://www.ratp.info/

The site has been recently updated with a lot of information and easy tools. 

What you can do with the site:

1. Find out the timings of any method of transport: BUS, TRAM, TRAIN
2. Find the most optimum itinerary to reach from point A to point B – shortest durations, or least changes of conveyance or least amount of walking!
3. See the maps of any address or locality
4. Find out the price of ticket, schemes and special tariffs
5. Use interactive maps 
6. Find touristic information
7. Know the time of the next trains in real time

The next most utile thing in Maps is 

http://www2.mappy.com/

Here you can find the map of any place in France, and I usually search and print the map of the place I am going to- any office, any specific shop, a friend’s house and I never get lost, which is a good thing, as getting lost in these areas means a lot of walking! 

To buy a Paris Map, you can search for good ones in any of the souvenir shops and they have pretty good ones for around 10 Euros. 

It is always good to be armed with a Paris Map and an RER map (available for free at all RER and Metro stations).

RER (local train system) MAP- click to enlarge

Translating Certificates to French

This can save you a lot of trouble and money, and I would recommend getting one’s documents translated to French before coming to India. This is the site of Alliance Francaise, and they have offices in major cities in India.

Alliance Française in India

You might need to get these documents translated:

Birth Certificates (of you and of everyone accompanying you as well)

Marriage Certificate

Relevant Degrees

Mobile Phones and Roaming from India

Coming from India, roaming services are extremely costly and sometimes charge arbitrarily!

We have been very satisfied with our experience with Matrix Phone, and I would heartily recommend it!

• Matrix Phones from India

These are the mobile service providers in France:

• Orange Mobile
• SFR Mobile
• Bouyges Mobile
• France Telecom
• Virgin Mobile

Absolute Essentials for Newcomers

Knowledge is power. There is no need to get overwhelmed with anxiety about a new place, where to go, how to go…

Read these sites, take print outs of Maps and notes you make.

• Annabel Simms
• Bus routes of Paris
• Find the best route to your destination
• France – Regions
• Map of France
• Paris Train Stations
• Paris_local train network
• RER MAP