Q & A

Subject: Philadelphia to Paris to Dijon to Montbard.

Question: My wife & I are going to France in August 2003 for my daughter's wedding. Neither of us knows a word of French other than bonjour, we somehow have to fly from Philadelphia to Paris, find a train that goes to Dijon, from there another train to Montbard where we will be met by the groom's family and taken to Laignes. Everyone I talk to says that if you don't at least attempt to speak French first, then no one will talk to you in English even though they can and since I can't read any of the signs, is there a good chance we will spend the rest of our lives wondering around Charles De Gaulle airport ?

Answer:

Pat,
You can do it! When I first arrived in France I did something similar to you what you have to do. I spoke little more then Bonjour at the time and I made it. For what it is worth, there is a direct TGV (High speed) train from Paris to Montbard, the travel time is a little over an hour and the cost is 30 euros one way. I got this information off the French train company web site, http://www.sncf.fr.
Normally when you fly from the states into CDG you arrive in the morning, so you could either stay the day and night in Paris and leave the next day or go straight to Montbard. One of the direct trains leaves at 11:54 am and the other at 5:44 pm. The morning one might not be possible but the evening one is very doable.
To get from CDG to Paris you will need to take the RER B, a suburban train. Look for and then follow the signs marked, RER-TGV and then just RER. There is a ticket booth where you buy you tickets, don't worry the people there will speak English. You could also take a taxi or the AirFrance bus you will have to ask where these can be found. The RER is the cheapest way to go to Paris, but you might find it the most stressful.
Once in Paris you will need to get to Gare de Lyon train station. If you take the RER then you will need to transfer at Chatelet-les-Halles, taking the RER A direction either Chessy or Boissy-St-Feger, just going one stop. Once at Gare de Lyon look for the signs marked TGV and then you will need to find the schedule board to find out what track (voie in Franch) your train is leaving from.
You can purchase your train tickets either online at, http://www.sncf.fr or in Paris when you arrive. Being that you will be traveling during the summer I would suggest that you purchase ahead of time. As for not speaking English in Paris it will not be a problem as the language of tourism is English. It might be stressful at times but your trip is very achievable.