Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Arriving by train Monday afternoon

If I am arriving from Amsterdam by train Monday afternoon, is there some kind of passport control or immigration I will have to go through at Gare du Nord?





Thank you in advance for your help!




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Yes and no - though there are (often plain-clothes) customs officers present at the Gare du Nord, they only do random checks. Normally you won%26#39;t notice anything.




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As both countries are in the Schengen community there is no passport control (as with Eurostar), leaving the train and walking down the platform is no different to leaving any domestic train.





Personally I was unaware of the customes checks mentioned by JanToo - if anyone asks you to open your bags make sure you see i.d.





;-)




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There is no customs or passport check when arriving at Gare du Nord. Uniformed police may wait on the platforms to inspect %26#39;randomly%26#39; chosen arrivals, esp. if the origin was Amsterdam.



After you have shown your passport onboard to the train conductor, put it away safely until you arrive at your hotel (where the desk clerk might ask for it).



Deboard the train, and walk purposefully toward the main hall, and do not accept %26quot;help%26quot; from anyone. Rather than buying tickets for the metro at Gare du Nord, buy them on the train in the bar car, get to your hotel, then buy a carnet or a pass or whatever from the nearest metro ticket window. There are too many pickpocket and scam opportunities in Gare du Nord to linger there.




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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;Yes and no - though there are (often plain-clothes) customs officers present at the Gare du Nord, they only do random checks. Normally you won%26#39;t notice anything.%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;





I%26#39;ve seen men---in ordinary street clothes with a tri-colour arm bands with FRANCE embroidered on the bands---occasionally stop people (at what appeared to be random) at Gare du Nord. But as mentioned, it seemed to be totally random and they seemed to simply want to see a passport or papers before waving those they stopped on their way. There was no %26#39;..formality..%26#39; to it and I never observed any inspection of personal baggage. But as noted, if ANYONE asks you to open your bags at a Paris train station, ask to see some ID.




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Thanks for this post. I have two friends who are arriving via Eurostar from London in July and asked me that same question. I had no answer, but now I do, and will email your responses to them.




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When travelling London - Paris all the customs %26amp; immigration formalities are on the UK side, there is nothing on arrival in Paris.




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There is no control for passports but there are customs/police officers and sometimes dogs doing random checks for drugs since you can buy them in Amsterdam but not bring them to Paris.



The %26quot;random%26quot; checks seem to target a young male population.




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