Paris Arrival Guide: CDG, Orly and How the City Works When You Land

Which airport will you land at?

Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) handles the great majority of international arrivals: it is big, spread across three terminal clusters, and its size is the first-day factor people underestimate — allow time inside the airport itself, both at immigration and walking to the train station. Paris-Orly (ORY) is smaller and mostly serves European and Mediterranean routes; since the Métro 14 extension opened through the airport, it has become the easiest arrival in the Paris region — one metro line, about 20–25 minutes to the city's centre-east. Beauvais (BVA) is neither in Paris nor really in Beauvais: it is a low-cost-carrier field some 80 kilometres north, whose only realistic link is a coach timed to flights. The code-check rule applies: a "Paris" fare that is actually Beauvais trades money for two hours of your day, sometimes worth it, sometimes not — compare total door-to-door.

Two structural notes worth knowing before you book rather than after: CDG Terminal 2 contains a full TGV station, so you can continue by high-speed train to Lyon, Bordeaux, Brussels or Amsterdam without entering Paris at all; and if you are leaving Paris by train rather than plane, the RER B connects CDG directly to Gare du Nord (Eurostar) in the same 50 minutes.

Getting into Paris: the €14 airport ticket, RER B and Métro 14

The 2025 fare reform simplified everything into one rule: journeys between Paris and the airports — CDG by RER B, Orly by Orlyval/Orlybus or Métro 14, either direction — cost a flat €14 with a ticket, or ride free within a Navigo pass. The €14 airport ticket (a Navigo Easy tap or a phone-app ticket) covers the airport leg and onward connections within Île-de-France for its validity window, so a single purchase handles CDG-to-your-hotel even with a change. Ordinary city tickets — €2.50 Métro-Train-RER, €2.00 bus-tram, €12.30 day pass — do not include the airport lines; that is exactly what the flat airport fare exists for.

From CDG, the RER B runs from the station beneath Terminals 2 (and connects T1/T3 by shuttle) through Gare du Nord, Châtelet, Saint-Michel and onward — about 25 minutes to Gare du Nord, 35–40 to Châtelet, and onward toward Orly via the Antony–Orlyval link if you are transferring airports. It is fast, frequent and crowded; it is also the line with the pickpocket reputation, so bag-in-front, phone-away on the platform. The retired option: the Roissybus to Opéra was withdrawn on 1 March 2026 — if an older article recommends it, it is out of date. Taxis from CDG run flat-rate to the Right Bank (~€56) or Left Bank (~€65) under the official scheme, which makes them a rational choice at night or with small children rather than a luxury.

From Orly, Métro 14 is the new spine: automatic, fast, through Bercy, Châtelet and Saint-Lazare — the airport station is excluded from ordinary tickets, which is what the €14 airport fare covers. From Beauvais, the official coach meets flights and delivers to Porte Maillot in 80–90 minutes; book online ahead for the better fare, and treat the round trip as four of your hours unless the flight saving is real.

First-day practicalities: money, cards, apps and Paris rhythms

Cards work nearly everywhere, but Paris is still more cash-flavored than London: small boulangeries and market stalls occasionally prefer coins or have a card minimum, so carry a little cash. For transport, download the Île-de-France Mobilités app (or RATP app) and top up a virtual Navigo pass on your phone — or buy a Navigo Easy card at any station for a small fee and load tickets on it; both tap the same purple readers. Buy a carnet-style set of ordinary tickets or use phone taps; each Métro ride is a fresh €2.50, so a day of six rides costs €15, which is exactly when a €12.30 day pass or weekend Navigo starts winning.

Data: a French or EU eSIM bought before you fly costs a few euros for a week and beats the airport SIM desk. Eating rhythm is the real first-day adjustment — kitchens close between lunch (roughly 12:00–14:00) and dinner (19:30–22:00), and a restaurant that looks open at 16:00 is usually not serving food; the café that is open serves drinks and it is fine to sit with one. The afternoon museum problem solves itself with planning: most national museums close either Monday or Tuesday (Louvre closes Tuesday), so check which day your priority museum is dark before you build the week.

Getting around Paris: the Métro lines that matter, Vélib' and walking

The Métro is dense enough that you will rarely ride more than ten minutes. The lines visitors actually live on: Line 1 (east–west through Châtelet, Louvre, Champs-Élysées), Line 4 (North–south through Gare du Nord, Cité, Montparnasse), Line 6 (the elevated arc through Trocadéro with Eiffel Tower views between stops), Line 14 (the new, fast, driverless spine including Orly), and the RER C for the Eiffel Tower's Champ de Mars and Versailles. Verify the RER C Versailles advice seasonally — the RER C and Transilien lines split Versailles traffic; the station you want is Versailles Château Rive Gauche on the C. Walking is genuinely competitive for centre trips: the 1st–6th arrondissements chain together beautifully, and the city rewards surface travel more than any map suggests.

Vélib', the bike-share, is excellent in fair weather: a day pass is cheap, docks are everywhere, and the first 30 minutes of each ride are included. Taxis and ride-hail are metered and honest but priced for shortcuts, not commutes. One etiquette stack: let riders off first (it is enforced by glares), keep your bag fronted on the RER B, and validate tickets on buses too — inspections are routine and fines are not theatre.

Where to base yourself: six arrondissement strategies

Saint-Germain and the 6th: classic, calm, expensive, perfectly central. Le Marais (3rd/4th): the walk-anywhere favourite — boutiques, falafel, Place des Vosges, direct Line 1 and 11. South Pigalle and the 9th: the food-and-bars scene with lower prices than the postcard zones, one metro hop from the centre. Canal Saint-Martin (10th/11th): young Paris, iron footbridges and wine bars, easy Gare du Nord access for the RER B and Eurostar. The Latin Quarter (5th): students, cafés, the Panthéon, good value by core-Paris standards. Bercy and the 12th: the value play with Line 14 and Line 1 access — less romantic, fast everywhere.

Hotel pricing in Paris moves with exhibitions, fashion weeks and school holidays more than with seasons — compare your dates, not "Paris averages". What is stable: rooms in the core are small by international standards; a "double" can be 14 square metres. Choosing an aparthotel or a slightly bigger room one metro stop out is usually a better spend than a boutique shoebox on the postcard street.

The mistakes that ruin first days

Buying ordinary tickets for the airport leg (or airport tickets twice): the flat €14 airport fare exists precisely for that journey. Arriving with no plan for the RER B crowd: front your bag before you board, not after. Assuming museums are open on Mondays: they rotate closures. Eating dinner at 18:00 and wondering why the kitchen looks closed: restaurants open for dinner around 19:30, and booking ahead for the famous ones is normal, not defensive. Tipping big: service is included; round up or leave a euro or two. And the classic rookie routemaster: cramming Montmartre, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower into day one — Paris repays one anchor per day plus streets, not a checklist sprint.

Day trips that earn their morning

Versailles: 40-ish minutes on the RER C to Versailles Château Rive Gauche; book the Palace entry slot online and go early or late in the day. Giverny (Monet's gardens), April–October only: train from Saint-Lazare toward Vernon, then shuttle — worth it in bloom, skip it out of season. Reims: 45 minutes by TGV from Gare de l'Est, cathedral and champagne cellars in one walkable afternoon. Disneyland Paris: direct RER A from the centre, 40 minutes — a genuinely painless family day. And within the region, Auvers-sur-Oise (Van Gogh's village) pairs naturally with an afternoon return through Pontoise.