ParisByTrain.com

[PhillyTraveller]

My family will be visiting Paris in September and staying at a hotel on the Boulevard Du Montparnasse, within walking distance of both the Port Royal and Denfert Rochereau stations on RER Ligne B. We are a train friendly bunch having lived in London, Philadelphia and New York. When we leave Paris, we need to get to CDG airport for our flight home. Clearly, the fastest and best value way to get there is to take the RER train B to Roissy CDG. My only concern is that each of us will have a moderately heavy case to carry (it's a 10 day trip). Parents are aged mid 40s, our kids are age 14 and 11. Does anyone know how easy/hard it will be to get down to the RER train with bags at either of these stations? We don't mind carrying bags down reasonably short flights of steps, but if it's really deep (like some of the London Underground stations) that could be harder. I'm hoping that as RER B was built in the 1970s it might be more easy accessible than the older Metro stations. The RATP website says both stations are handicapped accessible "with the assistance of staff". Does anyone know what this means? Also, as we'll be travelling out to CDG in the Friday morning rush hour, does anyone have an opinion if it is better to pick up the train at Denfert Rochereau or Port Royal? Any help you can give on any of these questions would be much appreciated!

[ben]

If I remember correctly, Denfert Rochereau actually has elevator service down to the platform, but I'm not positive as it's been quite some time since I've last been there.

If you're really worried about lugging baggage around you could try Les Cars Air France coach bus service from Gare Montparnasse to CDG Airport.

Ben

[PhillyTraveller]

Thanks, Ben. Sounds like we'll be fine if we go to Denfert Rochereau RER station. I never realized how good the London Underground is until I thought about this issue. Any station of depth has escalators that you can ride down with a case. I just assumed (erroneously) that Paris would be the same.

By the way, thanks so much for your website. It is very useful in explaining the "how-to"s of the system, so it shouldn't be so much of a shock when we get there.