Getting Around in Paris is a Breeze
New to Paris and need to get around? No problem, Paris is one of the most easiest cities to travel and navigate, with trains, Metros, buses, trams, taxis and even self-service bikes. So, once you’ve arrived, checked into your Paris Hotel, relax…let the City of Paris take you for a wonderful ride.
Paris’s rail network is very dense, there are 6 major railway stations that are spread out all through the city: Gare de L’Est, Gare Saint-Lazare, Gare du Nord, Gare d’Austerlitz, Gare de Lyon and Gare Montparnassse. All these railways can be used to travel in Paris, and they also link the city to other regions of France, especially the high speed trains like the Train a grande vitesse.
There are almost 300 Metro stations, which are Parisians favorite way to travel in Paris. 16 lines operate from 5:20am to 1:15am. On Saturdays, the Metro and the tram lines run for one hour more and on the evenings before bank holidays. Stepping outside your Paris Hotel , you’ll have no problem finding a Metro entrance; there’s one about every five hundred meters. The entrances are marked by poles with an ‘M’, a ‘Metro’, or a ‘Metropolitan’ sign . 5 of the almost 300 Metro lines are the RER (reseau express regional) express network, which are lines that cross Paris and serves suburbia.
The buses and tramways operate from Monday to Saturdays from 5:30am to 8:30pm, some run on Sundays and bank holidays. The ‘Noctilien’ lines take over at night, these trams have 3 lines and link up to the Porte d’Ivry and the Pont du Garigliano. You can buy a basic ‘T’ ticket, good for one day, which will let you use both the buses and the trams.
Taxis are of course available every day at all hours. They are very easy to spot because of how they look and they have a light on the roof. Then, there are the thousands of self-service bicycles provide by Velib, which was created by Paris City Hall. These 20,000 self-service bicycles are accessible around 1451 stations, and are operated by an electronic terminal station. You can take out a bike, short-term for 1 to 7 days, or long term for a year.