Hi Ben. I was wondering if public transport hours are extended during the games. I will be attending a night session at Roland Garros (scheduled 7:30pm to 11:30pm) on Friday, Aug 2nd. I know that tennis matches can go way passed schedule and my accommodation is near Val d'Europe station. I read somewhere that on Friday & Saturday nights during the Olympics, all various lines will complete at their terminus until 0215am, their extended hours, but unsure how reliable the source was. I don't want to have to take an Uber from Roland Garros to Serris, France when I don't need to. Also, could you provide me the link to the operating hours. Thanks.
1 answer
There's a couple late night options to get from Michel-Ange Molitor (closest Metro station to Rolland Garros) to Val d'Europe (one stop before the popular terminus of Marne la Vallée) and which option to take depends on the time you're able to start your journey. I'll lay out the Early option and the Late option.
Early option: departing Michel-Ange Molitor Metro 9/Metro 10 station (~16 minute walk from Rolland Garros) at around 00:00 (midnight)
This is perhaps the quickest/easiest route, using Metro 9 & RER A. But this route ends the earlier due to the RER A train you'd need to catch at Auber station, the last of which departs at 00:34 (every day). (I haven't seen any significant changes to Metro/RER timetables due to the Olympics. If you have a link to an official notice by one of the transit authorities of extended schedules, I'd be interested in seeing it.)
If your match ends "on-time" and you're able to get to Michel-Ange Molitor station by 00:00, then this gives you enough time to make your transfer at Auber, so take Metro 9 (not Metro 10!) in direction "Mairie de Montreuil" until station Havre-Caumartin. At Havre-Caumartin station you'll walk the tunnels from Havre-Caumartin to Auber station to take the RER A train. The RER A line has two terminus stations in the East: Marne la Vallée-Chessy & Boissy-Saint-Léger. You want to take only Marne la Vallée bound trains. Use the the overhead screens to double check the train arriving at the platform is for Marne la Vallée-Chessy and not Boissy-Saint-Léger.
The last RER A train for Val d'Europe will depart Auber at 00:34. If you're not on this train, you'll need an alternate route. (There is one later RER A train that departs Auber at 00:47, but that train terminates at Torcy two stations before Val d'Europe and won't continue on to Val d'Europe.) Anyways, if you're able to get the 00:34 train at Auber for Marne la Vallée, you're golden and will arrive at Val d'Europe at 01:14.
Late option: be at Michel-Ange Molitor station by 01:49 (or before)
This later option uses Metro 10 plus a night bus N130. The last Metro train to depart the origin of Metro 10 (Boulogne Pont de St. Cloud) does so at 01:47. It'll take about 2-3 minutes to get to Michel-Ange Molitor so be at this station by 01:49. Take Metro 10 all the way to its terminus of Gare d'Austerlitz. Then walk across the Seine towards Gare de Lyon train station and to the bus stop "Lyon - Van Gogh". Here you'll take Night bus 130 (N130) which terminates at Marne la Vallée Chessy and stops at Val d'Europe along the way. Takes about 1h30m from Austerlitz to Val d'Europe. Bus N130 departs Lyon Van Gogh at 01:10, 01:40, 02:10, 03:10, 04:30.
To see usual start/end times of Metro trains in Paris you can visit ratp.fr horaires-metro. Choose Metro tab, then the line number you're intersted in, then on the right under "Historique" click the origin station, then scroll down till you see Premiers et Dernieres Passages and you'll see the first and last trains at that train stop. This will give you a good idea of when that Metro line stops running (under "Dernier"). Metro trains aren't run with a predetermined time at a certain station, only a start/end time of the entire line and then a changing frequency throughout the day and night.
RER trains do run with a target time at each station, although these can vary/not be very accurate throughout the day due to various delays / issues. From ratp.fr horaires-rer you can select the line (red A line icon), then click Fiches Horaires to get the schedule for the entire line