GETTING THERE
Arriving by plane
The national airline is Air France (AF) (Internet: www.airfrance.de). Air France (AF) offers direct flights to Paris from Berlin, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Vienna and Zurich. Air France also flies to Lyon from Düsseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart and Vienna.
Austrian Airlines (OS) connects Vienna with 40 cities in France.
Airlines that also fly to France include British Airways (BA), KLM (KL), Swiss (LX), Lufthansa (LH) and Eurowings (EW).
Tuifly (X3) flies from numerous major German cities as well as from Vienna and Zurich to France.
Flight times
Frankfurt – Paris: 1 hour 20 minutes; Vienna – Paris: 1 hour 45 minutes; Zurich – Paris: 1 hour 15 minutes
Arrival by car
Car: Excellent road network, connections to all neighboring countries.
With the A 34 between Sedan and Reims, France holidaymakers arriving from northern and western Germany have a more convenient route to Paris. Anyone who previously drove towards western France via Aachen, Liège and Mons can now use the free A 34 through the French Ardennes, which connects to the A 4 to Paris in Reims. France holidaymakers from southwest Germany can use the motorways to Le Havre without having to drive via the Paris area: From Saarbrücken on the A4 to Reims, there on the A 26 to St-Quentin and then on the A 29 to to Le Havre.
The east-west A19 motorway from Sens to Orleans has been running continuously since 2009. This means that there is a complete cross-connection for travelers from the Rhine-Main area and Saarland to the Loire Valley and Brittany.
Motorists have free travel through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Italy and through the Pyrenees tunnel to Spain. The route leads from Montrejeau on the French A 64 (Pau – Toulouse) through the Central Pyrenees and the Vall d’Aran to the Tunnel de Vielha and from there on via the Spanish N 230 to Lleida (Lerida). Long-
Distance bus: Flixbus (Internet: www.flixbus.de) and Eurolines (Internet: www.eurolines.com) travel from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to France.
Arriving by train
The rail connections between France and neighboring European countries are excellent. There are
daily connections with the ICE from Frankfurt via Mannheim, Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken to Paris (travel time: 4 hours).
The French high-speed train TGV (Internet: http://www.tgv.com) serves the following routes:
Geneva – Paris
Basel – Marseille (journey time: approx. 4 hours 30 minutes), Mulhouse – Marseille
Bern – Basel – Paris
Lausanne – Vallorbe – Paris
Zurich – Basel – Mulhouse – Strasbourg – Paris (travel time from Basel: 2 hours 50 minutes; from Zurich: 4 hours 03 minutes)
Stuttgart – Karlsruhe – Strasbourg – Paris (travel time: 3 hours 10 minutes)
Munich – Augsburg – Ulm – Stuttgart – Karlsruhe (2 hours 30 minutes to Paris) – Strasbourg – Paris (travel time: 5 hours 45 minutes)
Frankfurt – Marseille (travel time: 7 hours 44 minutes)
Frankfurt – Lyon (travel time: 5 hours 56 minutes)
Freiburg – Paris (travel time: 3 hours 30 minutes)
Baden-Baden – Lyon (travel time: 4 hours 18 minutes)
Frankfurt – Strasbourg – Paris (travel time: 3 hours 40 minutes)
Paris – Perpignan – Girona – Barcelona – Saragossa – Madrid (travel time: 10 hours)
to Marseille, Nîmes, Montpellier, Bordeaux and Disneyland Paris with a change in Strasbourg.
The well-developed EuroCity network is constantly being expanded. There are direct connections with various long-distance trains from Paris to Cologne, Frankfurt / M., Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Munich, Vienna and Zurich and from Strasbourg via Munich East and Salzburg to Vienna.
The luxury train Venice Simplon-Orient-Expres s (Internet: www.orient-express.com) connects Vienna with London and Paris.
The Thalys (Internet: www.thalys.com) runs from Paris, London via Brussels to Aachen and Cologne (travel time Paris-Cologne: 3 hours 14 minutes) and three times a day from Essen to Paris via Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Cologne.
There are three Thalys sales points in Germany:
– Thalys Store & More Cologne, Bahnhofsvorplatz 1, 50667 Cologne, (opposite the main entrance to the main train station), Tel: (0180) 500 90 73. Internet: www.voyages-sncf.eu. There you can book primarily tickets for the Thalys from Cologne, as well as all SNCF and Eurostar train tickets to London.
– Thalys Store & More Düsseldorf, Heinz-Schmöle-Straße 12 (entrance Bertha-von Suttner-Platz opposite the main train station), 40227 Düsseldorf.
– Thalys Store & More Aachen in Aachen Central Station.
Voyages SNCF, the sales subsidiary of the French state railway SNCF, has opened its own shop in front of Cologne Central Station (Tel: (0180) 500 90 73. Internet: www.voyages-sncf.eu). There you can book primarily tickets for the Thalys from Cologne,as well as all SNCF and Eurostar trainticketsto London.
There are continuous connections between Paris (Gare du Nord) and London-St. Pancras. (Travel time 2 hours 15 minutes) with the Eurostar (Internet: www.eurostar.com) and between London and Lille (travel time 1 hour 20 minutes) and London and Brussels-Midi (travel time 1 hour 50).
SNCF and Renfe offer a fast train connection between Paris and Barcelona (journey time: 6 hours 25 minutes).
The Eurotunnel Shuttle runs through the Channel Tunnel between Calais and Folkestone and transports trucks, cars and buses. Motorail trains and passenger shuttles operate. The travel time from terminal to terminal is 35 minutes, from freeway to freeway approx. 1 hour (Internet: www.eurotunnel.com).
Fare Discounts:
InterRail – tickets are valid, details s. Germany. Further information from the information offices of the DB, SBB and ÖBB agencies as well as the French state railways (SNCF) on Tel: (0180) 599 66 33 (24 hour service).
Rail passes
InterRail: Children (4-11 years), young people (12-25 years) and adults (from 26 years) who have had a permanent residence in Europe, the CIS or Turkey for at least 6 months can use InterRail.
The InterRail One-Country Pass is available for travel in almost 30 European countries including Macedonia and Turkey and is valid for 3, 4, 6, 8 days within 1 month in one country. Children aged 4-11 travel at half the adult price.
The InterRail Global Passenables travel through several countries and is offered with different validity periods. Either 5 days out of 10 days total validity or 10 out of 22 can be selected. A continuous period of 22 days or 1 month is also possible.
Arrival by ship
In summer the AIDAdiva from Aida Cruises cruises from Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea and also goes to the ports of Cannes and Ajaccio / Corsica.
There are numerous ferry connections from Great Britain and the British Channel Islands to France, including with
Brittany Ferries (Internet: www.brittany-ferries.com): Portsmouth – Caen, Portsmouth – Cherbourg, Portsmouth – Le Havre, Poole – Cherbourg, Plymouth – Roscoff;
Condor Ferries (Internet: www.condorferries.co.uk) (Jersey / Guernsey – St. Malo; Portsmouth – Guernsey / Jersey; Poole – Cherbourg);
DFDS Seaways (Internet: www.dfdsseaways.de), P & 0 Ferries (Internet: www.poferries.com) (Dover – Calais);
Transmanche Ferries (Internet: www.transmancheferries.com) (Dieppe – Newhaven; Portsmouth – Le Havre; Dover – Dieppe; Dover – Boulogne; Rosslare – Le Havre);
LD Lines (Internet: www.directferries.de) (Le Havre – Portsmouth, Dover – Boulogne; Le Havre – Rosslare, Dover – Dieppe) and
P&O Ferries (Internet: www.poferries.com) (Dover – Calais).
Comanav and SNCM offer ferry services from Tangier, Morocco to Sète. From Algeria offer Algerie Ferries (Algiers / Oran / Bejaia / Skikda / Annaba – Marseille), SNCM Ferryterranee (Algiers – Marseille) and CNAN Maghreb Lines (Oran / Algiers – Marseille) on passenger and Autofährverbindungen. Corsica Ferries (Savona – Bastia / Ajaccio, Leghorn – Bastia), Moby Lines (Genoa / Leghorn / Palau (Sardinia) – Bastia), Medmar (Naples – Portovecchio), Saremar Ferries (Santa Teresa di Gallura) organize crossings from Italy to Corsican ports (Sardinia) – Bonifacio) andCMN La Méridionale (Porto Torres (Sardinia) – Propriano). Balear Express runs between Palma de Mallorca and Sète. CTN and SNCM Ferryterranee offer ferry services between Tunis and Marseille.
In the summer a GLD Lines ferry (Internet: www.gldlines.com) connects Toulon with Rome.
