Station · hotel · venue

Get there

One train line, then everything is walkable.

📍 Where everything is

  • 🏨Dan stays at the Mercure Paris La Défense Grande Arche, 17-20 Esplanade Charles de Gaulle, Nanterre. Next to RER Nanterre-Préfecture, not La Défense.
  • 🏛️CNIT Forest, 2 place de la Défense, Puteaux. The big curved concrete vault beside the Grande Arche.
  • 🚄Paris Gare de Lyon, about 14 km east. RER A runs straight through.
🟢 RER A · ~25 min · no change

🚇 Gare de Lyon to the Mercure

  1. Off the train, follow the RER A signs (red, "A" in a circle) down to the underground level.
  2. Ticket: one Métro-Train-RER ticket, same price anywhere in Île-de-France except the airports. Machine, or the Île-de-France Mobilités app (it can load a Navigo Easy in your phone wallet). Buy two for a return trip.
  3. Platform westbound: trains to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Cergy-le-Haut or Poissy. All stop at Nanterre-Préfecture. Not Marne-la-Vallée or Boissy (that is east).
  4. Stops: Châtelet-Les Halles, Auber, Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, La Défense, then Nanterre-Préfecture. Get off there, one stop after La Défense.
  5. Up to street level, towards the Esplanade Charles de Gaulle. The Mercure is right by the station, about 50 m.

⏳ Mercure check-in is from 15:00. Reception keeps bags before that.

Île-de-France Mobilités →

🟢 1.4 km · ~18 min on foot

🚶 Mercure to CNIT Forest

  1. Out of the hotel, head east. You can see the Grande Arche at the end of the axis.
  2. Walk along the Esplanade Charles de Gaulle and the Jardins de l'Arche, straight towards the Arche.
  3. Climb onto the Parvis de La Défense at the Arche.
  4. CNIT is the huge curved concrete shell on your left, just past the Arche. Follow the FOST signs to badge pickup.

☔ Pouring? Take RER A one stop to La Défense. The station connects to CNIT under cover.

⬇️ GPX
🟠 14.1 km · ~3 h · optional

🥾 Gare de Lyon to La Défense, all on foot

  • 🌊Along the Seine, past the Hôtel de Ville and the Louvre.
  • 🌳Tuileries, Concorde, up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc.
  • 🌉Out along the Grande Armée, over the Pont de Neuilly, across La Défense.
  • 🎒Only with a backpack. With a case, take the RER.
  • 🌇Start by 14:00 to arrive around sunset (~16:55). Tired? RER A runs underneath most of the way: Châtelet, Auber, Étoile.
⬇️ GPX

🏠 Back to Gare de Lyon

Dan's Thursday, for anyone on the same evening train.

  • 🧳Morning: check out, bag at the hotel reception.
  • 🚶16:15 leave CNIT. Walk to the Mercure, 18 min.
  • 🚇16:45 RER A eastbound from Nanterre-Préfecture (Marne-la-Vallée or Boissy). Off at Gare de Lyon, ~25 min.
  • 🚄Up into the mainline station. Train at 18:22, into Zürich HB at 22:26. The platform shows about 20 min before.