Gare du Nord — Local services in Paris

I suppose not everyone would love to read a long whining, so before all TIPS BY MY OWN EXPERIENCE: If u accidentally or have to purchase two tickets on one phone without the traffic card, scan the second tickets minutes after the first one is validated. ( which I think should be something the assistants should know at least, not repeating ask me to buy another ticket all by myself)

The trip was so much fun until we got here ready for our leaving ride. First of all, we used the application to purchase tickets. We bought two on the same iPhone for out of no reason my girlfriend’s iPhone just can’t get the metro ticket leaving for the airport. And after she got in, I just couldn’t get pass the gate and was told, after a long long queue waiting at the service station, only one ticket per iPhone. Since that was set, why don’t you guys just upgrade the darn application set or utterly delete the choice of purchasing multiple tickets? And then, let’s come back to the service centre issue. I won’t complain that you some of u guys may not be good at English at the helping centre, but greeting with colleagues and kissing on cheeks in the middle of the process when I was seeking for help. You guys serious? I appreciate the laidback attitude in France and I suppose barely nobody isn’t exhilarated during work and loved colleagues coming in is fun, but COME ON, I was still there, ANXIOUS(a little) for being late for my flight. After their half-minute-ish conversation finished, they finally turned back to me only to sign me off to the other clerk who can speak decent English who also helped me with nothing but the attitude was acceptable. The help centre actually helped me with NOTHING. It won’t sabotage my wonderful experience in France but only to make me sick of the public service, hopefully the situation was only...

1 Star – Extremely poor communication and mismanagement at an international hub. But Eurostar should get 5 star, i will wrote a separate 5 star review for them.

I had a Eurostar ticket from Paris to Amsterdam on April 18th, departing from Gare du Nord. The train was delayed by two hours due to technical issues — which is understandable. However, the way the station handled the situation was unacceptable.

Throughout the delay, we kept checking the information screens, which only showed vague “Delay: 1h30” messages. There were no staff around to ask questions, and no proper updates were given. After waiting for over 3–4 hours with my 4-year-old son, we finally found a Eurostar employee who told us the train had already left. We were told there was an announcement — but it was made only in French, despite this being a major international station serving travelers from all over the world.

Because of this communication failure, I missed my train, lost hotel and tour bookings in Amsterdam, and had to find last-minute accommodation in Paris past midnight. The next day, I was offered a seat meant for train staff — uncomfortable and clearly not meant for passengers.

Gare du Nord seriously needs to improve their information systems and ensure announcements are made in multiple languages, especially English, given the volume of international travelers. This experience cost me thousands of dollars and caused unnecessary stress and inconvenience. Deeply...

Same experience with many others here. Overall a great trip to Paris except I also fell victim to this “trap”. The ticket price from central Paris to CDG airport is 10€. If they catch you with the wrong 1.90€ ticket outside the city, they will charge you 35€. Fair enough. I didn’t know. The inspectors got on the train and smiled at us while we waited for the departure. As soon as the doors closed, they inspected our ticket and immediately fined us. Why can’t they just warn us before the doors closed? (There was a 4-5min window before the doors closed) There were no announcements prior, and another group of tourists besides us was also fined for the same reason. Is it our fault? Yes. But it’s a very big fine for just making a simple mistake. The individual inspectors are just doing their jobs. But the SYSTEM punishes ignorant tourists as if it is a game. It’s unfortunate that a state-owner railroad system enforces such an unfriendly trap on ignorant and vulnerable tourists. Most other countries would just make the tourists pay the difference of the ticket fare, not a fine 3x the normal amount. Come on RER. Be more friendly to your visitors. I was told to watch for pick pockets around Paris and ended up not seeing a single one. I wasn’t expecting to be “pick picketed” by the city’s...