Gare du Nord Train Services |
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 * Photo Credit: fredpanassac
With more than 180 million travellers per year, Gare du Nord (in the 10th arrondissement), is one of the busiest railways in Europe. Gare du Nord provides easy access to Charles de Gaulle airport, metro lines 2, 4 and 5 and RER lines B (airports), D (Gare de Lyon) and E (St. Lazare). When Eurostar arrived in 1994, efficient access to neighbouring European countries was also provided, including , Britain, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands.
* Photo Credit: ell brown
Booking Eurostar online is an easy process (you can either print your own ticket, or collect it), via their website. Other trains using these station include TGV: a high speed service connecting to Brussels, Geneva, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart. Thayls can take you to Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany.
* Photo Credit: eisenbahner
If you exit Gare du Nord on the west side of the station you can easily grab a taxi in the ‘Cours des départs’, take the airport shuttle to Charles de Gaulle or Orly airport, jump on a bus (for example, No.26 to St-Lazare Station, No. 65 to Gare de Lyon or the 350 to Gare de l'Est. Or if you’ve just arrived and want to get stuck straight into sight-seeing Paris you can see the artist’s district - Montmartre and Sacre Coeur within minutes of arrival, catch the metro eastward to Pere Lachaise or head on down to Notre Dame cathedral to the south.
Did you know Paris’ Gare du Nord has appeared in a number of movies, including The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, Ocean’s Twelve, Mr Bean's Holiday
Gare du Nord, History
* Photo Credit: pablokdc
The station was inaugurated on the 14th June 1846, but proved so popular that by 1860 it had been partially dismantled to provide adequate space. The original façade was removed and then transferred to Lille.
German born, French architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792 - 1867), designed the current train station and construction continued from May 1861 through to December 1865. Glaswegian ironworks Alston & Gourley provided the support pillars inside the station.
* Photo Credit: bibendum84
* Photo Credit: fredpanassac
Twenty impressive sculptures rest on the station Gare du Nord’s façade. Eight of these crown the cornice line and represent international places (Paris is placed in the centre), and twelve further sculptures represent northern French cities, aligned on the lower façade. The sculptors and cities are as follows:
- Amsterdam by Charles Gumery
- Arras and Laon by Théodore-Charles Gruyère
- Berlin by Jean-Joseph Perraud
- Brussels and Warsaw by François Jouffroy
- Cambrai and Saint-Quentin by Auguste Ottin
- Cologne by Mathurin Moreau
- Douai and Dunkirk by Gustave Crauck
- Frankfurt by Gabriel Thomas
- Lille and Beauvais by Charles-François Leboeuf
- London and Vienna by Jean-Louis-Nicolas Jaley
- Paris by Pierre-Jules Cavelier
- Rouen and Amiens by Eugene-Louis Lequesne
- Valenciennes and Calais by Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire
Gare du Nord Address
18 Rue Dunkerque.
112 rue de Maubeuge
75010 Paris
Station Gare du Nord on Google Maps
* Heading photo credit: HolgerE
* Photo Credit: NicolasSacre |
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