RER
- By : Cynthia
- Category : Vacations - 2009
Vacations - 2009
I’m sorry the above picture is so dark and I’m not at home to fix it before uploading, but I have to include it because it’s really the only one I have from our first encounter with the metro system in Paris. After we gathered all of our luggage and figured out we didn’t have to go through customs, we made our way to the RER ticket box to purchase one way tickets into the city. Michaela’s first instructions for all of us were, “DO NOT LOSE these tickets because you will need them at the next stop.” Most of us heeded this advice. One of us did not…….
We were easily able to find the RER at Charles De Gaulle which is what we needed to take us into the main part (area 1) of the city. Have you looked at a Paris map to see how the town is divided into circular areas? Feel free to skim over the following paragraph which contains travel details I’m including for my own future reference since I plan to return some day with the rest of the family. Posting this info here on the blog now will save me from having to look it all up from scratch again the next time.
The RER is a commuter rail network which opened in 1961 and is more formally known as the the Réseau Express Régional offers rapid transit within Paris and is, from my understanding, the fastest way to get from Charles de Gaulle Airport to the main part of Paris, Versailles, Disneyland Paris, and other suburban destinations. It is basically a network of five major lines radiating in all directions from the city center with stops at all of the main railway stations and connections with all of the Metro transfer points.
Em was all chipper and excited to see Paris!! So, she didn’t sleep at all on the RER into Paris.
Amanda, otoh, was suffering from a bit of jet lag and fell asleep almost as soon as the train started to move.
and before we knew it she was making herself even more comfortable…..
The Grandmas don’t seem to be suffering from any jet lag yet and they’re still smiling, but it is only the first day. We’ll see how they’re holding up after a few days of intense sight seeing.
We rode the RER to the GardeNord station which took about 20 minutes and then we switched to the metro which we took to the Republique Station mentioned in another blog entry and I think that was only about 10 minutes. When we were switching lines at the GardeNord, we discovered that one person in our group (we won’t mention any names, but it was one of the grandmas) didn’t have their ticket.
Michaela and I had to go find someone to help us since we couldn’t find any other ticket booths to get the ticket we needed to complete the leg that was started at the airport. It was a bit daunting on those who had to wait for us because it’s the first experience in a foreign country for the girls and Grandma Jean and there were military men with machine guns roaming the area, etc.
It took about an hour to get the ticket situation resolved so that we were back on the road …. err… in the subway (LOL). After this incident, Michaela decided we should collect everyone’s tickets and keep them all in one place for locating quickly and easily the next time we need them.
