France by Bike Part 2: Getting To Paris

[I put this series of posts in book form if you’d find that more helpful. It’s pretty much the same without the pictures, videos, and clickable links. You can buy it as a physical book or ebook on Amazon.]

Departure

As I mentioned in Part 1, we flew Delta on our trip. They fly out of Bozeman and I was able to use American Express Delta Sky Miles to purchase the tickets and Comfort Plus to accommodate our long legs. The older I get, the less value I get out of suffering to save money. This was the first time I’d paid for the extra leg room and it was so worth it. We like Delta but obviously your location and award points situation will vary. Because we used the Delta Amex to get our tickets we also got one free checked bag each which we used for our bike boxes. I also get a $100 annual voucher amount which helps with items not covered by the points like taxes and fees.

On May 1st, my wonderful wife, TravelingMel took us to the Bozeman airport with Anders crammed in around our bike boxes. I brought the bike boxes not fully sealed and a cheap roll of packing tape, just in case. Even though I’d weighed them, I wasn’t completely sure my $12 baggage scale was entirely accurate. Luckily it was and we were under the limit about as much as I thought on the weight. I threw a couple more lengths of tape around edges and corners and gave the packing tape to the airline people. I breathed a big sigh of relief and we headed up to our gate…where we waited for the next hour and a half because I’m a dad and that’s how I roll. Better to get there early and wait than run late because there was a traffic jam or computer outage or a flat tire on the way to the airport. Others (TravelingMel) disagree but I stand by that.

And, at least we had a nice view out the window at the new snow that had fallen the night before. After another long Montana winter, I was ready to get to France.

Because we’d put airtags in the bike boxes, I could also be sure they’d made it onto our planes. There wasn’t much I could do if they didn’t but at least I’d have an idea of where they were. At the time, AirTags were a bit controversial with the airlines but most have since relented and even embraced them. But just in case, you might want to check with your airline’s policy.

Now is a great time to activate your e-sim if you haven’t done so yet. Many of them can’t be activated over the cell network so wifi is pretty critical. You’ll have a wifi signal at CDG but why wait? It shouldn’t start charging you until it connects to a relevant cell network.

It’s also a good time to download a bunch of offline google maps if you haven’t already. 

As I mentioned earlier, we walked from our first flight right onto our overseas flight because Economy Plus has priority boarding. No standing around hoping for enough room for carry ons for us. 

On the plane, we sat next to a nice couple from Idaho that were going to Slovenia for the month to fly fish. We chatted a bit about how Slovenia has added a bunch of new bike touring routes and how much we both loved the country for various reasons and then we pretty much watched movies and tried to sleep.

Arrival

Upon arrival in Paris we exited the plane and went to passport control. It was a huge line and crowd but it actually progressed very rapidly. In 2024, much like the US Real ID, the ETIAS online visa requirement had be delayed yet again. ETIAS is the European Travel Information and Authorization System. It’s an electronic visa system for the Schengen Zone countries. Basically you will fill out a simple form online, pay your (currently estimated) 20€. It’s supposed to take a matter of minutes to get approval but may take up to 3 weeks. It’s valid for three years with no need to re-apply for other trips within that time period. As of the writing of this article, it’s been delayed again until late 2026.

This is different than the EES (Entry/Exit System) which is supposed to go into effect in October 2025. Basically this is a digital system that will track your entry and exit from the Schengen zone regardless of when and where you enter. You will be expected to let them scan your fingerprint and collect a photo. They keep the information for three years and use it to confirm your ID on your trips during that time. It’s supposed to make the process faster and easier. The bummer is that you won’t get a stamp on your passport which I kind of like to have.

However, we didn’t have to worry about any of that. We just had to worry about finding our bikes and getting them into Paris. They showed up no worse for wear in the oversized baggage area which was really just a corner of the baggage claim area with some low shelves around it and no one checking anything. Ours were the only bike boxes so that bit was easy plus I’d written our names on them. The boxes were a bit banged up but no more than I would have expected for cardboard with 50lbs inside. The TSA had opened the boxes and re-taped them with their own tape which made me a bit nervous but there’s wasn’t much to do about it until we opened up the boxes, put the bikes together and found out if anything was missing. That’s another great reason to keep your bits and bobs in a ziplock bag and maybe tape it to the frame. We grabbed a luggage trolley (these are generally free to use in other countries) and headed out into France. But, they wouldn’t fit through the main doors out of baggage claim. Luckily a guard was there to open a special gate for us to get through. When the process or system runs into a hitch, the French tend to just figure it out and find a solution that works.

CDG has a free wi-fi signal named WIFI-AIRPORT or WIFI-AIRPORT-STANDARD. Now is a good time to make sure your e-sim is working or download any maps you forgot to do before leaving.

Getting Bikes from CDG into Paris

There are several different ways you can get into Paris from the airport. Which you choose will depend on your comfort level with getting on the bikes right off the bat and your budget.

Riding your bike into Paris:

People who are fit and not jet lagged may opt to assemble their bikes right there in the airport. You should be able to find a convenient place to dispose of the boxes there. The ride into Paris is a bit over 30Kms and you can follow a canal most of the way there according to google maps (tinyurl.com/2ykjoamv) and a post on a message board. Also (http://www.dansmith.info/cdg/Notes.html) The tricky bit is getting out of the airport complex. I’ve read that heading east out of the airport is actually easier with less traffic. Once you get into Paris, there should be a mix of dedicated bike lanes and on street riding. It’s a fantastic experience at that point. As long as you keep off the highways/motorways you should be fine. Drivers are assumed to be at fault in any run in with a bike so they are very respectful of your space. Expect a relatively flat route along the Canal de l’Ourcq and it should take you 2-3 hours. If you have time and energy, a cell signal, and it’s not nighttime, I’d seriously consider this option. It’s a bit intimidating, I know, but totally doable.

Take the RER B into Paris:

Taking the RER B train into Paris should cost you around 13€ per person. There are two stations at CDG from which you can catch the RER-B into Gare du Nord in the city. The first is 

Aeroport Charles de Gaulle 1 which is a walkable distance from Terminal 3 in the Roissypole complex. If you arrive in Terminal 1, you can catch the CDGVAL shuttle train to the station. If you arrive in Terminal 2, you can use the Aeroport Charles de Gaulle 2-TGV station. You will pass through CDG2 if you start in CDG1. Taking your bike on the TGV is generally recommended AGAINST because of the restrictions on how you do so. 

You can take your boxed or fully assembled bike on the RER-B train with certain restrictions.

Bikes are allowed on RERs ONLY:

• All day Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays
• Weekdays before 6.30am
• Weekdays between 9am and 4.30pm
• Weekdays after 7pm.

You need to use the carriages with the bike stickers on them

The upside of this option is that it’s fairly cheap. The downsides are that  1.) You have to maneuver your bikes/bike boxes through the terminal and stations. 2.) make sure you have space on the train and 3.) you have to figure out the ticketing system and 4.) unless you want to really go around your elbow, you’ll need to assemble your bikes at Gare Du Nord anyway and ride across Paris to Montparnasse. Admittedly, number 3 is probably not that hard but jet lag and stress tends to complicate my decision making process.

I’d actually recommend this option. Though I haven’t taken the RER with a bike, I have ridden from Montparnasse to Gare du Nord and it was a delight, if a bit exciting. Again, this is all dependent on your comfort level and probably the weather.

Note, in almost all cases you cannot take your bikes on the Paris Metro. 

Take a special bike transfer service

There are special transfer services, some of whom will take bike boxes. Think a private shuttle van. I found a couple starting at 75€. 

Take a Taxi from CDG into Paris

Taxis from the airport into the city have a flat rate system. As of this writing in 2025, a trip to the Right Bank is 56€ for up to 4 people and to the Left Bank where Montparnasse is should be €65 Euros. Taxis tend to be sedans but if you are one person with a bike, they will typically fold down the rear seats to fit a bike box. If you have more than one person, I’ve read that you you can ask the queue marshal for a van and they shouldn’t charge you much more if any for a van that will take the boxes though you may need to wait a bit until one moves up the taxi queue.

Online, I’ve read that you should go straight to the taxi line and avoid anyone soliciting you in the airport. They are “illegal” taxi drivers and likely to charge you way more than the flat rate. Despite this warning, it’s exactly what I did. I ended up paying 120€ but at that point I just accepted it as another costly mistake. It wouldn’t be my last but it may have actually been my cheapest since it was “only” 55€ difference. He made the excuse that since it was a “national day” he was charging with the meter. I decided to let it go and followed along on google maps just to make sure he wasn’t running up the tab even more.

On the bright side, and as a pro for the taxi route, it’s easy, it’s quick, and we got dropped off right at entrance to Montparnasse station. Taxis almost always accept credit cards which is nice as well.

So there we were, in the heart of Paris, with two large, ungainly bike boxes, and utterly jet lagged.

Places to stay in Paris, France near Gare du Montparnasse.

Assembling the Bikes

Our taxi dropped us off right at one of several entrances to Montparnasse a bit after 11 AM. We had at least six hours to put the bikes together and get some food. The station itself is not one of those classic, grand old stations like Gare du Nord or Gare d’Este. It’s modern and seems a bit like an airport or a shopping mall in some ways. 

We carried our boxes up the steps, one person in front and one in back, each grabbing a bike box with each hand. To our left were the train platforms and straight to the right were shops and hopefully, some place to get snacks. We managed to find a quite place to the right and to one side next to shop that didn’t look open and that seemed like as good a place as any to get started. We got the bike boxes out of the way of people walking through the station as best we could and set about figuring how to open the boxes.

Because you can’t take sharp objects onto planes, for obvious reasons, we didn’t have a knife or scissors. Packing tape isn’t the easiest thing to get through, which is good up until you want to open the box. I think I used the pointy bit of a pen to get through the tape at the seams which worked pretty well. You could also use a key or maybe a tough credit card in a pinch.

We assembled the bikes one at a time. I’d tried to pay attention to how the bikes were put together before I’d taken them into the shop since we were both very new to biking and wouldn’t be watching them pack the bikes. I’d even watched a couple of YouTube videos on re-attaching and adjusting disc brakes and derailleurs. Still, it was a bit of a puzzle. Luckily none of the essentials had fallen out during the TSA inspection. I think we were missing a bottle cage and maybe screw or two. To be fair, I easily could have lost those myself.

However, several of the zip ties that attach the brake and gear cables to the frame had broken off and I hadn’t thought to bring extras. Another thing I hadn’t thought to do was mark how the handlebars and the neck clamp aligned. There’s some markings on the bars but they don’t have a center mark and the end bits get covered up by the clamp. A sharpy mark or tape or something would have been very helpful. 

Getting the water bottle cages back on was also tougher than I expected because it was awkward accessing the screw with the cage itself getting in the way. I was glad to have a traditional style hex/allen wrench in my kit. 

The Ortlieb Ultimate 6L bags are pretty handy but they attach with a plastic receiver plate that is bound to the handlebars with a metal wire cable that has to be threaded through the plastic bit several times. Definitely practices this at least once if you get a set. The way the cable wraps around the handlebars and clamp means the whole thing has to be removed to get the handlebars off. It’s a super stable and solid system once it’s on but I found reattaching it a bit confusing even after having done it once for each bike at home. The jet lag wasn’t helping my mental acuity either.

So here’s what we had to do to assemble the bikes after removing the various parts from the boxes. This is not in order.

• Attach the handlebars. Fairly straightforward and simple other than getting them adequately centered. Unless, of course, you do what I did and attach them while the front wheel is facing backwards. Again, jetlag. It was a quick fix though.
• Attach the brake calipers. Again, I spent some time to attach these backwards but eventually noodled it out. Then we adjusted the tension and alignment of the brake pads against the disk. Basically, this involves holding the brake lever tight so the pads are against the the discs while tightening the bolt that holds the brake assembly to the frame. It’s super simple but definitely practice ahead of time.
• We put the seats/seat posts back on and set them to the correct height.
• We put the water bottle cages on with an appropriate amount of whispered cussing.
• We put the front wheel back on which included re-inserting the axle/spindle thing and then adjusted the brakes for that.
• We re-attached the Ultimate handlebar racks on the handlebars. I was glad to have my multi-tool with pliers for this to hold that wire cable tight. 
• We put the pedals back on and had the correct wrench to do so. Be aware that there are right and left threaded pedals. {confirm this}
• We re-inflated the tires. With our tiny little pump, this took a lot of time and energy and was kind of unpleasant, hence my earlier mention of the small, new, battery powered electric pumps.
• We put our panniers on the bikes and made sure everything was as good as we could make it. 

One of the things we had to consider in all this was what to do with the bike boxes. They are big and ungainly and you can’t just stuff them in one of the station waste baskets. As we started the process of reassembly a station worker with a janitor cart came by. I tried to ask him if he could take the boxes when we were done and he acted like he could take them now but a few months of Duolingo and 30 year old high school French left some gaps in my communication efforts. Basically, he made an effort to understand but eventually we came to the conclusion that we weren’t on the same page and he left. 

I couldn’t find him after we’d finished with the boxes and I didn’t know what else to do with them, so yeah, I just left them there and hoped I’d gotten my point across. Although I didn’t understand him, he must have understood a bit of what I wanted (or just intuited it from context more likely).  When I checked back later, they were gone.

Killing Time at Montparnasse Vs Discovering Paris

The older I get, the less tolerant I am of time changes and long travel days. It was probably a bit before 1pm local time and I was tired. I was hungry too but one of the challenges of bike travel, especially in a new city, is, well, the bikes. You can’t just leave them lying around with packed panniers in a busy public space in a major city; not if you want to keep your stuff. The area around Montparnasse isn’t bad per se but it’s definitely part of the city. If it had just been the bikes, I’d have said, “Ok, let’s just lock them up on these racks and not be gone too long.” But all of our other stuff was too much to carry.

I have to admit also, that at this point I was operating out of fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of riding bikes in a foreign city. Fear of not knowing the traffic laws, or the lay of the land, or the local crime rate, or any of it. So I was afraid to just hop on the bikes and go explore. Strange, since that’s exactly what we came to do, but that’s me.

We walked our bikes to a nearby boulangerie and I went in and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and drinks while Anders watched the bikes outside and then we walked our bikes back to Montparnasse. The station has a large pedestrian plaza out front and we sat out there and ate our lunch and hoped the clouds wouldn’t bless us with more than the occasional few drops now and then that we were getting. 

We took turns going inside to the bathroom and then sort of waited and watched. I was feeling kind of guilty too. I knew Anders was bored and didn’t see any reason not to go ride around. It’s one of the things I admire and envy about him. I do tend to see it as a bit of naïveté too. He just hasn’t had the experience of getting robbed or harassed for money or had those urban experiences that really make the cortisol climb. On the other hand, maybe I’d had too many (is three too many?). 

In any case, by about 2:45 my guilt at holding him back and regretting my own supplication to fear eventually got the better of me. I looked on google maps, and saw a park about two blocks away and figured we could make it there and at least have a more sylvan waiting room. Nervously, we hopped on our bikes and rode out into traffic. We rode a couple blocks looking for the park and then rode a couple more without finding it. But, we did find the Eiffel Tower soaring above the roofline so we just kept riding in that direction. After all, we still had four hours until our train ride. 

I was very nervous and had my head on a swivel as we fumbled into a separated bike lane, through a couple of intersections, and generally didn’t get hit or honked at or yelled at. I pretty quickly realized that this wasn’t a scary experience at all but actually pretty damn fun. And safe. And easy.

One of my goals for the trip was to put some of the responsibilities on Anders shoulders. We’ve traveled a fair amount but really it’s been us parents steering the ship. The boys have been along for the ride. Occasionally, we’d make them figure out where to buy tickets or what route to take but the stress of navigating safely as a family meant that I or Melynda took the reigns. I regret that. We have friends (@WorldTowning) who have done a much better job of giving their kids the freedom to roam and figure those things out.

Anders also likes maps. Really likes them. It wasn’t long before he was leading me through the streets of Paris to the base of the Eiffel Tower. This was a month or so before the summer Olympics so large areas were fenced off for event spaces but we could still make our way around. We’d been up the tower in 2017 so we didn’t feel the need to do that again, plus it would be a hassle with the bikes and bags. 

But, we did want to keep riding. It felt good to be rolling along and seeing new things. It was thrilling to be in a foreign city and doing what we’d come to do, especially after so much planning and preparation, detail and worry about getting things right.  We set our sites on the Hôtel des Invalides, rolling over cobble stones and enjoying various narrow streets and figuring out the system for the bike lanes. Not all streets had dedicated bike lanes but those streets were generally quiet and any cars gave deference. We saw other people riding bikes around including bike share bikes and racks and racks of bikes locked up for the day by commuters in their work places.

We crossed the Seine on the Pont Alexandre III and turned right towards the Louvre. We did somehow get onto a busy motorway but soon found an offramp closer to the river. We crossed back over the river towards the National Assembly building, stopping to take some pictures,  and then back into the narrow roads behind. I don’t think I will ever get over how easy and welcoming Paris has become to bikes.

In fact, over the last 10 years, they’ve added so many bike lanes and bike infrastructure that bike commuters actually outnumber car commuters. Overall, the commuter share in Paris in 2025 is: walking (53.3%), public transport (30%), bicycles (11.2%), and cars (4.3%). And it’s had an effect. Bike infrastructure and commuting have helped the city reduce air pollution by over 50% in the last two decades. It’s been so successful that the people of Paris recently voted to Pedestrianize another 500 streets, closing them to cars but keeping them open to pedestrians and bicycles. Wow.

Another discovery I made was how great getting some exercise is for jet lag. While it wasn’t completely gone, we both felt energized and re-invigorated by our little tour. I highly recommend a brisk walk or ride rather than giving into the natural fatigue after a long flight. I was still tired, but it was way more manageable.

Our first time loading Bikes onto a Train

Traveling by train with our bikes was one of those things that I couldn’t find much detail on beyond, “It’s easy” and that made me nervous. We arrived back at Montparnasse with an hour or so still to fill. On the SNCF-connect website, when you click through to the trip details, it says “You can board up to 2 minutes before departure”. Now, if you have basic reading comprehension skills you’d impute that you have time to board UNTIL 2 minutes before departure. But, I read that as saying you have ONLY 2 minutes to board the train. Worrying about things sometimes does that to me. Hence I was eyeing the departure board waiting for a platform number so I could have as much of that 2 minutes as I could use.

If you’ve never caught a train in Europe, the arrivals and departure boards are much like the ones at an airport but with platforms instead of gates. Similarly, they generally don’t list the departure platform until about 20 minutes before the scheduled departure. You might also see info regarding delays if there are any. Filled with unjustified cortisol I dragged us to a position where we could keep an eye on the board. 

I also scouted ahead and learned that we’d have to pass through a gate where we’d scan our tickets. This is the usual process and may be machine readers or humans with scanning devices. As the platform number popped up on the board 20 minutes before departure (not a minuscule 2), we headed for the designated platform amid a general current of fellow travelers doing the same. There can be a sense of hurry here as people rush a bit to find baggage space and seats if they haven’t reserved a seat. Here’s one of the advantages of traveling with a bike. We had to make a reservation so we had assigned seats.

As we approached the gate at the end of the platform, I fumbled with the phone trying to get the tickets up. I also noticed that our bikes with panniers attached might not fit through the narrow pedestrian gate. I had a bit of panic there but luckily there were staff with scanners and they opened the larger gate made for wheel chairs and other larger traffic. They scanned the bar codes on my phone that was our ticket, just like at the airport, and after jostling through with our awkward encumbered bikes, we made our way down the train platform looking for our carriage number and with the bicycle icon.

I haven’t mentioned what it’s like to maneuver these fully loaded bikes yet. But as you can guess, the weight distribution on a vehicle that depends on balancing on two wheels can get unwieldy. We weren’t traveling with a ton of weight but computers, water bottles, rain coats, and clothes can add up fast. Now try walking all that through a crowd with their own baggage and you’ll see that it slows your progress a bit.

We eventually found our car at the very end of the train and we were the first ones there. In fact, I think only one other person put their bikes in this car and then left so we could pick our own seats. But first, some info on actually putting your bike on the train; info that I wasn’t able to find elsewhere and had some anxiety about. As with most of my fears, they were vastly over blown. It’s very easy and self-explanatory once you get there and have to figure it out. But if you still want detail here’s some tips and photos to give reassurance.

On this first journey we entered the carriage to find a clearly marked, slight raised platform inside the second set of doors. By this I mean, we went through the big doors on the side of the carriage and there was another set facing the length of the carriage. These were not as wide but we were able to maneuver our bikes into this separate compartment. It was a good thing there wasn’t anyone else trying to board b/c we kind of bumbled our way through the process. We tried to follow the diagram for placing the bikes correctly. You’d think the photos would be culturally neutral but I had a hard time following them. I was mainly confused about how the strap to hold the bikes upright was supposed loop through the bikes but I also think were supposed to put them head to tail. 

Since I didn’t really know how long we’d have to get the bikes off when the train stopped in St Nazaire, we positioned the bikes so they were both facing the exit. Of course, I didn’t realize that St Nazaire was the last stop on the route so we’d have plenty of time to get our stuff off.  I think we were supposed to place them head to tail for better fit which was made pretty clear by the sign images if I’d looked closer. We left the panniers on at first which didn’t help either.

Our assigned seats were right next to the rack but since the coach was empty, we spread out a bit.

Other trains that we caught later had hooks up high which you use to hold your front tire. You rotate your bike on the rear tire (I like to hold the rear brake to keep it from rolling out on me) to face upwards and lift the front tire onto the hook and the bike hangs there, vertically. There’s usually some sort of slot or post near the bottom to keep it from swinging around too much.

Still other trains just had an open area with fold down seats that could be used if there were no bikes. They generally had some sort of strap to keep the bikes from falling over.

As the train started rolling out of the station, the fatigue hit again. Anders was soon out but I was too nervous I’d fall asleep and miss a stop or station. The clouds had stayed around and I watched the rolling farm lands and spring foliage go by and I had both a sense of relief and excitement that we were actually there and doing this. We still had to figure a few things out and buy a few bits and bobs but we were on our way.

Getting to Saint-Nazaire

A few hours later with a couple of short stops along the way, we arrived at the coast. Saint-Nazaire Station is a pretty modern affair. It’s a small to medium sized station that we navigated easily. As we were arriving around 8pm, the cafe and other shops had closed. We got the bikes off with little hassle but we were still working the kinks out of our technique. Anders hopped on his bike and started riding down the platform since we didn’t see anyone else on it. This quickly drew a whistle from an official and admonishment not to ride bikes on the platform. This was only the first time that happened but they just waggled a finger and went about their business as soon as he got off. 

In front of the station we found two office buildings and a bus station for local busses. We’d be back here in a couple of days. In the mean time, I’d made a reservation at the local Holiday Inn Express. It was centrally located in the town and I could use my IHG points. I’d fallen in love with Holiday Inn Express (HIE) on our year in Europe back in 2016-2017. We’d stayed at one in London and they had the most amazing complimentary breakfast with actual food. It wasn’t like in the US where they load everything with sugar and individually wrap food in plastic, disposable containers. Real yogurt, fruit, cheese, pastries, etc. Plus this Holiday Inn Express had a place to store our bikes which we would need since we planned on spending two nights there.

But first we had to get there. Anders was rested up and led the way as we rode our bikes about a mile to the hotel. Since it was May and we were at 47 degrees latitude, we still had a fair amount of light to navigate the easy route to the hotel. We arrived to find a tall building on the edge a large square called Place Amerique Latine. We went in and got room keys.

On this trip, I always worried a bit about bike security at night. You can lose a wallet, or passport, or even some luggage and continue on even if you have a bit of a pause. But, if someone steals your bike, you pretty much have to go home or buy a new bike. Luckily, particularly along the Loire a Vélo, most places where you might stay cater to bicyclists to some degree and have some sort of system, even if it’s just taking your bike into the room. The Saint-Nazaire HIE, like many hotels we’d find, had a basement garage .

We hopped back on the bikes to ride around to the back of the building and found the garage door that the desk clerk opened for us remotely and went down into the underground parking levels to find the dedicated bike area with a couple other bikes locked up to bike racks. They even had a bike maintenance stand which made me happy and the only time we saw anything similar. We locked up our bikes and grabbed our bags and headed up to the room. 

Though we both could have easily gone to sleep at that point we also felt fairly hungry. It was getting on towards 9 but the desk clerk helped us find a couple restaurants that might be open. She gave us directions but we just plugged the name into Google Maps and found the nice little Thai restaurant called Santosha she had recommended and got there just under the wire. We had a couple of Pad Thai’s and I had a beer. Then back to the room for some well deserved sleep. Ahhh.

See more places to stay in Sainte-Nazaire, France

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