Here's how to buy train tickets to go from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to central Paris on the RER Line B suburban train.

Follow signs reading Paris par train from anywhere in the airport. You will end up at Aérogare 2 (Train Station 2), CDG Airport's main train station.

You will need euros or a "smart" credit card with a computer chip (puce) in it to buy your ticket. (Credit cards issued in the USA usually do not have a chip in them, so they will not work.)

If you have neither euros nor a "smart" credit card, find a distributeur de billets (ATM/cash machine) and use your home bank card to withdraw some euro notes. If this doesn't work, find an airport Bureau de Change and change some cash to euros.

Ticket Machines
An RER train ticket from CDG Airport to central Paris costs 8.40€. If you have sufficient euro coins, you can buy your ticket from a ticket machine (see photo to right—>). The machines offer instructions in various languages, including English. The machines do not accept euro bills/notes, only coins.

There are change machines in Aérogare 2, (that accept bills/notes and give you coins in exchange), but they may not be accessible outside of business hours.

Ticket Office
If you don't have sufficient euro coins or a "smart" credit card with a chip, but you have euro bills/notes, you can buy your ticket from the ticket office.

Enter the ticket office marked:

BILLETS PARIS/ÎLE DE FRANCE
TICKETS PARIS/ SUBURBS
BILLETES PARIS/CERCANIAS

(See the photo on the right—>).

(Do not enter the office marked "TGV-Billets Grandes Lignes-Mainlines Tickets-Billetes Grande Líneas." That office is for intercity train tickets, not tickets to Paris.)

Wait in line and ask for a ticket to Paris.

Your destination is one of the four RER Line B stations in central Paris: Gare du Nord, Châtelet Les Halles, St-Michel Notre Dame, or Denfert Rochereau. (If your hotel or apartment is in the center of Paris, you'll probably want Châtelet Les Halles or St-Michel Notre Dame. More...)

The ticket agent will sell you a ticket good for the RER train all the way to central Paris, and also for the Métro once you arrive in Paris. Keep your ticket as you will need it to get out of the RER system. (You do not need a ticket to get out of the Métro system.)

Here's how to choose your train for the ride into Paris, here are more tips on riding the RER trains. , and here's an important warning about taking the RER B train back from central Paris to CDG Airport.