The RER B is the way into Paris: a train every 10 to 20 minutes on weekdays from the airport's two stations, about 40 minutes to Châtelet-Les Halles and 45 to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame. Buy the €14 airport ticket before the gates, in the app or on a Navigo Easy card, and check the evening works if you'll be out late.
What's the best way from Paris CDG into Paris?
For most layovers, take the RER B: about 45 minutes to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame, by the cathedral, or 40 to Châtelet-Les Halles for the Louvre, with a train every 10 to 20 minutes on weekdays. The airport ticket is €14 each way, in the Île-de-France Mobilités app or on a Navigo Easy card. Allow about an hour from landing to the train, and leave the centre about 3 hours before your flight.
Getting through the border
Before any train, you clear passport control, unless you’ve flown in from another Schengen country, in which case you walk straight out. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) doesn’t publish queue times, so plan on about an hour from landing to sitting on the RER B.
- EU citizens show a passport or ID card and go through.
- Everyone else is registered in the EU’s Entry/Exit System on first entry: a photo, plus four fingerprints if your passport needs no visa (visa holders gave theirs for the visa). It slows the queue.
- Bags. On one ticket they go through to your next flight. On separate tickets you collect them after passport control; left luggage is in the Terminal 2 train station building, opposite the Sheraton, open every day 7am to 9pm.
- A slow queue eats into your time in Paris, not your flight: your leave-by time stays put.
Who needs a visa to leave: visa and transit rules.
The options at a glance
| RER B | Taxi | Noctilien night bus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| To | Gare du Nord, Châtelet-Les Halles, Saint-Michel Notre-Dame | Anywhere | Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est |
| Time | About 30 min to Gare du Nord, 40 to Châtelet-Les Halles, 45 to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame | 35 to 60 minutes | About 55 minutes on the N143, 1 hour 25 on the N140 |
| Single fare | €14 | €56 to the Right Bank, €65 to the Left Bank | €2.05 |
| Pay with | The Île-de-France Mobilités app or a Navigo Easy card | The driver | A bus ticket, not the airport ticket |
The night buses run from about midnight to 5am, when the trains have stopped.
RER B: the way into Paris
- Finding it. The RER B has two stations at the airport. Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 TGV is in the middle of Terminal 2, a walk from Terminals 2A to 2F; from 2G, take the N2 shuttle bus to 2F first. Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1 serves Terminal 3 on foot and Terminal 1 by the free CDGVAL shuttle train.
- Which train. Every train leaving the airport goes into Paris, so take the first one. They run every 10 to 20 minutes on weekdays; at weekends, check the next departures in the Île-de-France Mobilités app.
- The ride. About 30 minutes to Gare du Nord, 40 to Châtelet-Les Halles, for the Louvre, and about 45 to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame, one stop further, for Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle. Every plan on our itineraries uses one of these two.
- Tickets. You need the airport ticket, €14 each way, before the gates. Buy it in the Île-de-France Mobilités app and tap your phone, or buy a Navigo Easy card at the station’s machines and load it there. A contactless bank card on its own won’t open the gates on the RER B. Coming back the same day, buy two tickets. Each one also covers a metro ride on the way, as long as you change within 2 hours, but not buses.
- First and last trains. The times are the same every day:
| Every day | |
|---|---|
| First train from the airport | 4:50am |
| Last train back from Gare du Nord | 12:15am |
| Last train back from Châtelet-Les Halles | 12:11am |
| Last train back from Saint-Michel Notre-Dame | About 12:03am |
Saint-Michel Notre-Dame’s own last time isn’t listed, so treat it as 12:03am, a few minutes before the last train from Châtelet-Les Halles. Few layovers need any of them: on a same-day return you’ll head back hours earlier. They matter if you spend the evening in town and sleep at the airport before a morning flight. The first trains back leave Gare du Nord at 4:53am and Châtelet-Les Halles at 5:26am, so a flight before about 7am can’t be reached from the city by train that morning.
Evening works until 18 December. Until 11 December 2026, on weekday evenings and some weekends, no RER B trains run between Châtelet-Les Halles and the airport from 10:45pm. From 14 to 18 December, from 10:45pm, none run between Aulnay-sous-Bois and the airport, and the B4 bus covers that stretch. Replacement buses run on both, but take longer, so on those evenings aim to be back at the airport by 10:45pm. Works and holidays can change other evenings too, so check your train back in the Île-de-France Mobilités app on the day.
Taxis and ride-hailing
- Taxis. Paris taxis charge a fixed fare between the airport and the city, in either direction and whatever the traffic: €56 to the Right Bank of the Seine, north of the river, and €65 to the Left Bank, south of it. Booking one adds €4, or €7 if you book ahead, and a fifth passenger adds €5.50. The ride takes 35 to 60 minutes. Take one from the airport’s official taxi rank.
- Ride-hailing. App fares aren’t fixed, so compare them with the taxi’s before you book.
- When a car is worth it. For two or more people with bags, with young children, or late at night after the last train. On your own by day, the RER B costs a quarter of the price and is usually as quick.
Pre-booked transfers
A pre-booked transfer gives you a fixed price and a driver waiting in arrivals, which helps most after a late landing or with a family. On your own with hand luggage, the RER B is far cheaper.
If the RER B isn’t running
The RER B is the only fast train, so a disruption matters. During planned works, replacement buses run along the line; they’re slower, so add time. If the line stops unexpectedly:
- Taxi. The simplest way, at the same fixed fare.
- Bus 9517. An express bus every day from 5:20am to 12:30am between the airport and Saint-Denis Pleyel, about 30 minutes, then metro line 14 into the centre at Châtelet. It takes a bus ticket, not the airport ticket. Allow well over an hour.
- After midnight. The Noctilien N143 night bus leaves Gare de l’Est, stopping at Gare du Nord, about every 30 minutes from 12:55am to 5:08am, and stops at Terminal 1, Terminal 2’s train station and Terminal 3, about 55 minutes from Gare de l’Est. The N140, from 1am, takes about 1 hour 25 minutes. Both take a €2.05 bus ticket; the airport ticket isn’t valid on them. Works can change night buses too, so check the next departure in the Île-de-France Mobilités app.
Moving between terminals
The free CDGVAL shuttle train links Terminal 1, the Terminal 3 and Roissypôle stop, and the Terminal 2 train station, from 4am to 1am. Terminal 2G is reached by the N2 shuttle bus from 2F. Our times are from Terminal 2. Landing at or flying from Terminal 1 or 3, allow about 10 minutes more each way, and from 2G about 15.
Timing your return
Be back at Charles de Gaulle 90 minutes before departure, with your onward boarding pass. Holding a boarding pass and carrying only hand luggage, you need that time for the security check, the passport desk if your flight leaves Schengen, and the walk to the gate. The airport tells passengers to come 2 hours ahead, or 3 for long-haul, but that’s for people checking in; if you have a bag to drop, come back earlier.
In practice, be at Saint-Michel Notre-Dame station 2 hours 45 minutes before your flight, or leave the Louvre, a 20-minute walk from Châtelet-Les Halles, 2 hours 55 minutes before.
| Layover | Time in town |
|---|---|
| 6 hours | About 1 hour |
| 8 hours | About 3 hours |
| 10 hours | About 5 hours |
| 12 hours | About 7 hours |
These times assume about an hour from landing to the train, about 65 minutes into Saint-Michel Notre-Dame with the wait for a train, 75 minutes back to the terminal and 90 minutes at the airport, as in the itineraries.