Gare du Nord

Nostalgie de la bou pour moi!
I love this station which has welcomed me for over 50 years to my favourite city
& outside is one of my favourite fish restaurants too : Terminus Nord : Mmmmm

WARNING – On my first visit to this station last week I encountered a gang of tricksters/thieves operating in the metro ticket area.  At first they appear to be very helpful to tourists helping me on the metro map to find my destination.  He then waited until I went to the ticket machine where he again appeared to assist.  He advised me to buy a 5 or 3 day pass I explained to him that I was there for 4 days and that I only wanted a single today and that I would buy a 3 day pass the next day.  He still insisted that I would be better with a longer pass, and before I knew it he had taken over the operation of the machine.  First of all he selected a 5 day pass I said no and that I wanted a 3 day pass.  The machine asked for payment and at this stage I entered my pin for payment.  It was at this point that he said my card would not be accepted and that I needed a euro card or similar (I was in Berlin early this year so I knew that some machines will not take certain debit cards).  He then produced a card and offered to pay with his card and to pay him back by cash. He put his card into the machine.    What I didn’t realise is that the machine had accepted my payment and printed the tickets which he had taken.   I knew something wasn’t right so walked away.  He ran after me claiming that he had paid for the tickets and that I owed him money.  I kept walking.  To my knowledge there were 3 of them operating in this small area.  I have been traveling for years and have never been done in my life until now.  When I got out of the station I knew what had happened and my bank statement confirmed that payment had been taken and that if I had paid him I would have paid twice.  As it was he had my tickets which I suppose he could sale on.   Can’t believe I was so gullible.

 

Serious update of the station needed - especially concerning signs on where to find various departments of the station. For instance luggage lockers, toilets etc. Passengers should not wait long.

I think this is the most dirty station I've ever been in! I felt really unsafe whilst there too, probably not helped by the fact I was a foreigner! But I really did get the feeling I could be mugged and no one would care! I was glad to get out of there!

A very poor sibling to St Pancras in London. Eurostar access is a befuddled sideshow for this station, at best, with the lifts often out of operation, steep stairways forcing passengers to hoist heavy bags up to the first floor check-in. The station caters better for SNCF and Thalis trains but only because access is via the main platform rather than the customs warren upstairs at Eurostar.  Does anyone clean in this station? It is absolutely filthy, with dirt mixed with cooking oil staining the walls. It may have been grand in the early part of the century but now it is only grande, crowded and totally lacking in planning for Eurostar passengers arriving en masse for hourly departures to London. I would much rather face a wait at the London end; St Pancras is already fitted with immigration and customs facilities; moving all of the immigration activities to London would save time and effort at capacity-constrained Gare du Nord.

Whatever. Yeah, it's easy to complain about this station but I've never really had a problem (well maybe I've experienced some Eurostar-related angst a couple of times and definitely some Eurostar passenger-related angst more than a few times), but in general I've found Gare du Nord to be an easy in-and-out way to access central Paris.

Yes, the food at Gare du Nord is crap but why bother there when yummy Paris treats are just outside the doors?

The lockers downstairs are good value and make roaming around without worrying about your luggage a cinch.

The Metro and RER can be confusing, overcrowded, stinky etc but I've found them to be more reliable and frequent modes of transportation (unless of course there's industrial action) than the London Underground.

It's a busy, popular station. Suckage abounds. And as other Qypers have mentioned, it definitely doesn't live up to the grandeur of the St Pancras here in London. Still, it's easy enough to get around and worth any effort required to visit the City of Lights.

Each time I go to Paris it's the same story. Buying a tube ticket is like never ending story. You queue for 20 minutes to the ticket mashine, you push the buttom 'English' and nothing happens. You waste another 20 minutes in the queue to the counter just to find out the person behind it doesn't speak English. And the staff is generally unhelpful. I can't understand why on earth at an international train station there's no English speaking person behind the counter?! You may not like England, but English is an international language, get over it!

I agree with Alex - it's shabby, too expensive (we paid 8 euros for a quite nasty tuna sandwich) and so busy that it's a disorienting experience getting off the Eurostar and onto the right metro or bus. Queues for metro tickets can be huge and I've seen how unhelpful the staff are to anyone who doesn't speak French or English.

The area isn't that nice either - watch your back and don't get into any old taxi, especially after dark.

Paris Gare du Nord is the most popular station for tourists to the UK.

St Pancras International, Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International are passenger stations in the UK, where you arrive on a train from Paris Gare du Nord. The Metro or for long distance the TGV is the post popular connecting service.

You should plan your trip when you arrive from France to the following UK stations:

St Pancras International, London - Can be expensive.
Ebbsfleet International - Good for Car hire and car parking!
Ashford International - Good cheap accommodation, good for Car parking and flights to Edinburgh/Manchester route via Ramsgate.

Update September 2009

A recent trip to France just confirmed my view that the Gare du Nord needs a serious makeover inside. The queues for the Eurostar home were incredible, and incredibly badly organised (not really organised at all, actually), and signage is still poor. The contrast with St Pancras is painfully acute.

In the Eurostar terminal, there were long queues for the women’s toilets, and only two of the three urinals in the gents’ toilet was in service, and only one of the three washbasins. Not great when you have 800+ passengers waiting.

The metro station has been spruced up a little but, with only two ticket machines, queues for metro tickets after a Eurostar has arrived can be very long, not helped by the beggars working the queues.

******************

After the other reviews, I’m a bit torn by the Gare du Nord. I’ve experienced some of the practical problems others have, but it’s also undeniably impressive as a building.

Including the RER tracks below, it is claimed to be Europe’s busiest station, with 180 million passengers a year going through its 44 platforms. It has all the facilities you’d expect for such a large station.

The station was originally opened in 1846, and served the Chemin de Fer du Nord railway, to Amiens and Lille. It rapidly became too small for the growth of traffic, and so was rebuilt to the present design 1861-65. The architect was J I Hittorff, better known for the fountains he designed in the Place de la Concord, and the houses in the Place d’Etoile around the Arc de Triomphe.

The classically-inspired main façade is one of the best railway stations in Europe, in my book, with a large central pavilion flanked by a matching pair of pavilions, connected by long wings. Long rows of Doric pillars are set off by larger Ionic pilasters, although the overall effect is rather spoiled by the iron canopy running the length of the building, which cuts through the lower tier of pillars. The whole thing is set off by such copious statuary that we could only be in France. The design is not quite as attractive inside in my view - I prefer arched glass roofs to pitched ones, but it’s still impressive enough.

Unfortunately, I too have encountered the haphazard service and long queues in the Eurostar terminal, which really does seem to have been designed as an afterthought. It’s OK once you are past check-in, but the facilities are not spectacular, and the food is mediocre - a poor advert for the one of the world’s gastronomic capitals. I’ve always found the toilets in the main station slightly seedy too - lots of shifty looking types hanging around. It felt like that when I was Inter-Railing in 1984 and still feels like it now. Signage is also poor, and it’s not easy to find your way around.

The cavernous RER station below can have the same slightly intimidating feel too - for a modern construction it’s quite dark and, although it is undoubtedly spacious (the UK could take notes on that), it’s not that easy to navigate. It has always felt distinctly unpleasant late at night, although security has improved of late.

As well as the Eurostar to the UK, it is the terminus of Thalys services to Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam, and domestic services to Lille, Amiens, Arras, Calais and Boulogne. The RER (lines B and D) serves the northern suburbs, the Stade de France and the airport at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle.

The busiest station on mainland Europe apparently. That doesn’t entirely surprise me given the number of travel options available here. Besides the basic metro options, there are trains to northern France and the northern suburbs of Paris, the Eurostar to the Uk of course and various stations in Belgium, Holland and Germany are also served.

Although the area has improved in recent years (I imagine this improvement is for a large part down to the arrival of the Eurostar bringing decent mannered English manners to the French rabble…joke!) it still attracts a seedier element, particularly later at night and I tend to like to get away from here as soon as I can.

I just find it a bit too intense for my liking. Too many people…and some of them want something, usually money in some way or other. Still it could be worse and it was a few years back.

Bit of a dump, to be frank. Busy, cramped, and a real let down after the glamour of St Pancras. It’s also in a crappy area of town, so you won’t want to walk around the area at night. If you take the Eurostar you’ll arrive here whether you want to or not; I’d advise you to get straight on the Metro and get out of there, before somebody asks you for small change or charges you a stupid amount of money for a sandwich and a beer. Just a friendly tip.

I found it hard to be impressed by the Gare du Nord - as a train station and a place to jump off the Eurostar, it is sufficient. Anything more than that, then the Gare du Nord becomes quite a disappointment.
The local area outside the Gare du Nord is devoid of anything interesting, a couple of fast food places and the odd restaurant in the nearby streets aside. As others have mentioned, on arrival, do not head outside - there is nothing worth the time, just get on the metro and go on your merry way.

I must say, I was fairly lucky in that I did not come across many beggars when I did head outside (only headed outside as I was waiting FOR the Eurostar).

Gare du Nord is probably the biggest station in Paris, and finding your way around it can be hard work. It is relatively well organised for getting to the metro though, which is often the only thing people use it for. Its age does show through a bit, especially when you arrive from the brand new St Pancras station, but that is a bit of an unfair comparison. It has a lot of services to cater for, including the Eurostar, metro, airport RER and mainline rail stations, and it does its job reasonably well.

This is one of the main train stations in Paris. If you travel to Paris on the Eurostar or Thalys you will arrive in Gare du Nord. The station itself is an impressive building, large and spacious. I found it friendly and easy to use, everything is signposted and the link to the underground is easy and well organised. I particularly liked the left luggage facility. It was very secure, easy to use and cheap, compared to London stations which I have used which charged twice as much.

After the splendid departure from St Pancras, to say Gare du Nord is a bit of a let down is a bit of an understatement. Your arrive seemingly alongside domestic arrivals, and although covered - outside. Once in the massive sprawling station, it is hard work to find out how and where to go next.

The metro - or underground - have specific ticket machines (the green ones), which although can be set to English, randomly switch back to French. Not all tickets are available either - the Paris Tourist tickets need to be purchased from the ticket office, where the staff, to be fair, were helpful and spoke perfect English - despite us doing our best to speak French!

I find this a fascinating railway station. I have met half the world here. Those who read me will know I like places where people wait around.

If you buy a coffee and sit in the little cafe area, you not only have a good view of the platforms but you get to chat to people.

I have met Australian journalists, German grandparents, Students from everywhere. Parisiens on their way to the south for a few weeks.

The trick is to look disinterested, and people sit beside you because you don’t look like a nuisance. Little do they know. Write a comment if you’re still with me. All you need to do is ask a mudane question, or comment on something you could not help but overhear, and you get to talk about all kinds of interesting things.

Waiting is inevitably a part of travelling, and I often remember the folks along my way.

Only four stars because it gets grimey.

I’ve never actually set foot outside le Gare du Nord, evidently it isn’t such a nice place! However, I found it extremely straightforward to get from the Eurostar to the metro, the ticketing system was easy, and it’s a very short walk. So, you can leave the station behind you in about 2 minutes from getting into the terminal…

The whole Gare du Nord athmosphere is appalling. Smelling of urine on the outside, the traffic chaos surrounding it makes it an area you really want to avoid, anless you are attracted by the numerous sexshops around.

The Eurostar experience was not great either: the line was probably 80 meters long and I do not think anyone in economy class could have gone through the whole boarding process in less than 45 minutes.

After the simple clean luxury of St Pancras, coming into the Gare du Nord is a bit like having a sweet that's delicious on the outside but when you get to the middle it's filled with dirt.

Perhaps it didn't help that it was raining, but the station was dark, damp and dank. The Eurostar seemed barely delineated from the suburban platforms and it was altogether an unpleasant place to be.

Arriving from London we stepped off the train and into France and got a sandwich from a generic kiosk. We were then harrased by beggars asking if we spoke English. Of course we said, 'no, we don't speak English, sorry.'

When departing for England we struggled to exit the Metro as we needed our tickets to get through the automated doors (every other time we had not needed tickets to exit) which was infuriating and panicing. Then it was difficult to find the check in. The check in was over cramped and understaffed.

Overall, the Gare du Nord is really failing to keep up with it's British Eurostar counterpart.