How do I buy a reserved train ticket from Paris (CDG) to Épernay using this 'World Wide Web'?

May 17, 2007 9:43 AM

How do I buy a reserved train ticket from Paris (CDG) to Épernay using this 'World Wide Web'?

I'm trying to buy a reserved train ticket to get myself and my brother from the Charles De Gaulle airport to Épernay. Due to a series of tragic misfortunes visited upon me as a child, I lack the mental capacity to puzzle this out on my own. I can't even figure out which stations are involved. Like I'm pretty well convinced that Charles de Gaulle — Étoile is not the same as Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1, which is what I think I need. Or is it A-CDG 2? Anyway, you see what I'm talking about. Combine this with the fact that every ticket-selling site seems to be designed by the geniuses behind punch the monkey and I'm having a hard time buying the tickets.

All the google results I could find, as well as archived Qs, are about buying railpasses or similar. I don't want a pass. I want to buy one ticket from one place to another on a specific day (May 24th), along with a guaranteed seat.

Thanks in advance. If you help me out, I promise to send you a postcard provided you fwd your address to my profile'd gmail, and it won't be some dumb Robert Doisneau thing either.

posted by jeb to Travel & Transportation around Paris, France (16 answers total)

Here is where to buy them.
posted by fire&wings at 10:00 AM on May 17, 2007

Do you speak French?
posted by altolinguistic at 10:03 AM on May 17, 2007

Hmm...Not a complete answer here, but a little surfing around the SNCF.Fr site turns up "Roissy (95)" as the Charles de Gaulle railway station.
I'm looking at this ">site.
posted by pj_rivera at 10:10 AM on May 17, 2007

I believe the CDG-1 and CDG-2 are the terminals.
http://www.shuttle-paris.com/roissy-cdg-airport-map.htm

Just use the sncf.fr website to go from your terminal to Épernay, voila!
posted by blue_beetle at 10:11 AM on May 17, 2007

Also, they will speak english at the train station where you buy tickets, if you want to wait.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:12 AM on May 17, 2007

OK. try this link.
posted by pj_rivera at 10:20 AM on May 17, 2007

This site might be useful. Looks like there's two ways to get the train - TGV and RER. RER is the local overground metro service, you probably can't book in advance, but it's likely to be much cheaper than the TGV, which is the superfast posh train which you probably can book in advance.

Wikipedia indicates that the TGV station is attached to Terminal 2, so you might be short of luck if you're arriving into Terminal 1.

You're right that Charles de Gaulle-Etoile is not the station you want - it's a metro station in central Paris.

You don't say how much you know of France, French language, French transport systems etc., so I'm assuming you know very little - sorry if this isn't the case.
posted by altolinguistic at 10:25 AM on May 17, 2007

All the SNCF website searches I have tried bring up results that take you on the RER, i.e. that aren't bookable in advance.
posted by altolinguistic at 10:26 AM on May 17, 2007

Response by poster: Yes, I've been trying that site (SNCF). When I enter "Charles De Gaulle 1", it suggests "ROISSY (95) - Station served: CHARLES DE GAULLE". When I actually try to book this, it says (now), " The departure city null you entered is unrecognized. Please check spelling and try again." Earlier, it was saying something to the effect of, "Your itinerary requires more than three transfers, so you can't book it online." I have it on good authority that there is a train that goes straight from Paris to Epernay, so more than three transfers seems a but excessive.

Altolinguistic-- my French skills are on the basic traveller's level. My knowledge of ex-Parisian transit, which I'm beginning to doubt, is "short->Metro, medium->RER (thats the tall one), long->TGV." So originally, I was googling "book RER ticket". I just figured you could book those online. This is related to my confusion re: which is the correct departing station even, because if the TGV leaves from one but the RER leaves from the other, won't I only see half the schedule on the website? In short, I know just enough about French rail travel to cause problems for myself.
posted by jeb at 10:36 AM on May 17, 2007

What you want actually involves 2 legs and 2 different systems of transportation: from CDG2 to Paris, then from Paris to Epernay.

For the first leg, you have several options listed here, for example: airlines coaches, regular bus, RER (which is the Paris regional Metro, linked to the metro network). Specifically, you want to go to "Gare de l'Est", which is the Paris train station for lines going East. If you use the metro, there is a "Gare de l'Est" metro station.

For the second leg, you go to the sncf site and buy directly your ticket on line from Paris to Epernay. You can choose your language, select date and hours and obtain several options.

Once in Épernay, enjoy champagne, lucky dog.
posted by bru at 10:44 AM on May 17, 2007

I plugged in your destinations in the Belgian railway planner (international destinations) and the suggested route is to take the RER to Paris Nord, from which you walk 800m to Paris Est where you can take a normal train to Epernay.
posted by pj_rivera at 10:44 AM on May 17, 2007

What bru said.
posted by different at 10:47 AM on May 17, 2007

Response by poster: altolinguistic, the search at Raileurope.com accepts CDG as an origin but then it shows results for "Paris Est". Check this screengrab out. Does this mean you just take the Metro from the airport? Does this sound reasonable?
posted by jeb at 10:47 AM on May 17, 2007

Exactly what bru & pj_rivera said.

RER is "most reasonable" to get from CDG to Paris Nord. If you don't want to walk the 800m (you may have heavy luggage?) you can change at Paris Nord onto the Metro and Paris Est is just one station from there - on the No. 4 and 5 metro lines. Tho you'll probably end up walking just as far underground as if you just get off at Paris Nord. :P
posted by ClarissaWAM at 12:58 PM on May 17, 2007

Response by poster: Great, thanks. I posted that 1:47 without previewing and missed bru et al's contributions. I thought I posted another followup in here to that effect, but clearly that is not the case. I booked the ticket[1] from Est. Thanks everyone.

[1]: I booked the ticket, and the ticket booking system said, "thanks for your booking. But there was some sort of problem that needs human attention. You'll hear from us in a couple days." Bogus. Hopefully I'll just be able to buy a ticket from the damn machine when I get there.
posted by jeb at 1:11 PM on May 17, 2007

jeb: There's a station right in CDG under Terminal 2 for the TGV, where I imagine (though I'm not sure) you can buy all TGV tickets, not just ones leaving that station.

And the "95" in "Roissy (95)" is telling you that the town of Roissy where the airport is in the department numbered 95 - namely, Val-d'Oise. The same numbers are on French license plates instead of, say, states, like in the US. Paris is 75; that's why Parisian postcodes start "75XXX."
posted by mdonley at 3:00 PM on May 17, 2007