on the road less travelled in Ireland and france

FRANCE

Seasoned travellers Fran and Conal left Ireland bound for France. Their flight takes them to the second airport of Paris, Orly. New country, new airport, new adventures.

By Conal Healy

Friday, October 20, 2023: I have been coming to France since the mid-1970s – usually it was by ferry and train, then it was by plane and normally into Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG).

I had flown into CDG so many times that I knew the airport lay-out and how to get to airport train station and into Paris. I even knew where to find the English-language train ticket machine.

One time I flew into CDG from Australia, cleared formalitites, was dragging my luggage to the train station platform when I was confronted by a squad of fully armed French soldiers, “doing a sweep” of the Arrivals lounge (France was on High Alert after a recent terrorist attack). Having come off a long haul flight from Brisbane, I had to do a double-take – had my jet-lag already taken me to an alternative universe?

The line of soldiers looked somewhat incongrous in their kakia green camoflague uniforms patrolling through a crowd of of well-dressed business men and women, smartly dressed tourists and leisurely dressed backpackers. They didn’t look out of place at all.

Back to 2023, it was disconcerting for me to fly into Paris’ second airport, Orly.

Before the opening of Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1974, Orly was the main airport of Paris.

Even with the shift of most international traffic to Charles de Gaulle Airport, Orly remains the busiest French airport for domestic traffic and the second busiest French airport overall in passenger traffic, with 33,120,685 passengers in 2018.

The link from Orly to Paris is not exactly direct, it isn’t (as of October 2023) on a direct metro/train line to the French capital. There are shuttle buses as options.

These are complications you do not need after getting off a long haul flight from the other side of the world.

Fran and I were coming in from Dublin, so jetlag wasn’t a problem.

The good thing about flying into Orly is that we got to see Paris from the air. We could pick out the landmarks, and see which suburb was catching a dumping from a passing  rain cloud.

Security and Immigration was a breeze, as an EU citizen it was a mere formality. Aussie-born Fran, travelling on an Australian passport had to join the Others queue and give details of her planned stay in France.

When we cleared formalities, picked up our luggage, we switched on our Ireland-bought sim cards. We had been assured our (Australian) smart phones with the Irish sim cards would work in France.

Orly Airport was fairly easy to navigate, very business like. We followed the signs to taxi/Uber ranks and joined a queue.

The phones slowly woke up and we had a choice to connect to the free airport wifi, once we stepped outside … the wifi dropped out.

Our plan to book an Uber was foiled at once.

We had a choice: Navigate the French public transport system which would get us (and our luggage) close to our Paris accommodation or get a taxi that would get us (and our luggage) direct to the apartment.

When we saw there was a fixed fee for the run to Paris (41 Euros) – there was a large sign beside the taxi rank announcing this fact – that’s when we joined the queue for the taxi rank. 

A nicely-dressed airport official was marshalling the constantly arriving taxis making sure there were no queue-jumpers. When it was our turn, we helped the driver load our bags into the boot and we took off.

As we rode the taxi into Paris, I reflected about all the times I had arrived in the French capital – by train, by bus, metro … this was a first for me, I was arriving by car. Very swish! We relaxed and let the driver navigate the Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, as night fell the rain rolled in so did the rain. Getting a taxi was good decision, Fran and I were dropped outside our Airbnb accommodation and so avoided a crowded Metro and walking the streets of Paris in the rain.

We got a tour of our (by Paris standards) big apartment by the mother of our host and got ready to out.

Ahead of us lay a nice dinner in our favourite restaurant in Paris … and the delights of the French capital.

FOOTNOTE: It took a few hours, but our Irish (Vodafone) sim-cards did kick in and stayed with us for the rest of our France holiday.

Going to Orly by Metro or Metro + Tramway

If you want to go to Orly airport by metro, the best option is to take Line 14. It allows you to reach the airport in 25 minutes from the center of the capital. You can also take Line 7, which crosses the center of Paris from La Courneuve in the northeast of the city to the southern suburbs. Stop at Villejuif – Louis Aragon metro station to take tramway T7, which will take you to the airport in about 40 minutes.

This option to reach Orly Airport by tramway is one of the most economical. You just need to have your Navigo Pass (zones 1 to 4) or metro and tramway tickets.

Duration from central Paris: Approximately 60 to 80 minutes
Fare: Starting from €4.20
Operating hours: 5:30 am to 12:30 am

Extension of Line 14 to Orly Airport

The extension of metro Line 14 allows travelers to go to Paris-Orly airport even more easily. Conveniently, this new feature allows you to reach Orly by metro from Olympiades station in just 16 minutes. From the center of Paris, you will only need 25 minutes to get to the airport!

Duration from central Paris: Approximately 25 minutes
Fare: The fare for the Orly Airport Ticket is €10.30 at full price and €9.40 at reduced price 
Operating hours: generally from 5:30 am to 1:15 am or until 2:15 am on Fridays and Saturdays