Sunday, April 15, 2012

please help...time to get to the Gare du Nord for Thalys?

I have a time question...my son will land in Paris De Gaulle at 8:30am on a Saturday. Does anyone know how much time he should allow to get through the airport, take the RER-B train to stop at Gare du Nord to board the Thalys to Brussels? We would like to book the Thalys but we want to allow enough time without being rushed.







thanks for the help!




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This is a loaded question! Airports are notoriously unpredictable and none more so than CDG. Arrival formalities can take anywhere from a few minutes to maybe an hour - although in all honesty I%26#39;ve never taken that long. (I travel from the UK so arrival procedures are a bit different).





One through the formalities, he needs to transfer to the station, get his ticket and allow 35 minutes for the journey itself. Once at Gare du Nord, allow 10-15 minutes to transfer to Thalys. (Is there a minimum check in time for that train? Sorry I don%26#39;t know the answer).





Assuming his flight lands on time, and everything else goes well, the absolute earliest I would book is 1130. If there%26#39;s a later train I%26#39;d opt for that.





Hope he has a graet trip.








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Did you research the option of taking TGV directly from CDG to Brussels, without having to go into Paris?




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No, I sure didn%26#39;t look at that...TGV directly? Someone just recommended the Thalys as being fast and cheaper if booked in advance but, to be honest, I%26#39;m more concerned about his getting around/getting lost/etc.



How long does the TGV take to go to Brussels and do you know if there is a minimum check-in time,etc. Thanks for all your help!




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The Thalys takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to Brussels from the Gare du Nord. There is no %26quot;check-in%26quot; and the track is posted 20 minutes before departure. If you%26#39;re using the SNCF site to get the tickets, you can type %26quot;CDG%26quot; into the departure field to see trains from CDG to Brussels. There are some direct, but many require a train change in Lille. That change would be less complicated than going to the Gare du Nord and leaving from there, however.

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