Station overview.  Station plan.  Map of Paris showing stations

• Paris St Lazare is the station serving Normandy, including intercités trains to Caen, Rouen, Dieppe, Le Havre, Cherbourg.  However, most of its traffic is now suburban, and it's this which makes St Lazare the second busiest Paris terminus after the Gare du Nord.  See tips for using Paris St Lazare.

• The station opened in 1837, but most of today's buildings including the facade date from 1889.  The station was renovated in 1936 and again in 2012, when the 3-level shopping mall was created.

• The Gare St Lazare is a terminus with some 27 platforms, numbered 1 to 27 from left to right, west to east, see station plan.  Local trains to Versailles-Rive Droite leave every 15 minutes from platforms 1-4 at the west end of the station.  The intercités to Caen, Rouen, Dieppe, Le Havre, Cherbourg leave from platforms 18-27 at the east end of the station.

Facade...  The broad facade of Paris St Lazare spans the width of 27 platforms, from the west end block pictured above left to the east end block pictured above right.  The wide centre section between these two blocks is not shown here.

Standing outside the western entrance, looking along the facade towards the east block.		Inside the western main entrance, staircase & escalators to the shopping mall upper level.

Shopping mall...  Immediately inside the facade there's a triple-deck shopping centre which runs the whole width of the station.  The middle of the 3 floors is at street level.  The top floor (shown here) is at concourse & platform level.  There are escalators (and at the west end, a grand staircase) from street level to upper level.  In this photo we're looking eastwards, with archways on the left leading through to the concourse and platforms.

The main station concourse, looking west to east, with the 27 platforms lined up on the left, various archways through to the upper level of the shopping mall on the right.  At the far (east) end of this concourse are the ticket office and platforms 20-27 used by the intercités to Normandy.

The platforms...  The Intercités to Normandy (Caen, Rouen, Le Havre, Cherbourg) usually leave from platforms 20-27 at the far east end.

This photo shows the 3 levels of the shopping mall, lower, middle (street level) & top (platforms/concourse).		Ticket office (Boutique Normandie) at the far east end of the station concourse, near platform 27.

Starbucks, far east end of the top floor in the shopping mall.  It has seating inside as well as out.		Automatic ticket gates at the entrance to each group of platforms...

Tips for using the Gare St Lazare...

• Tickets...

  The main ticket office (Boutique Voyages) is on the middle (street level) floor in the shopping mall, at the extreme east end.  There is a subsidiary ticket office (Boutique Normandie) at the far east end of the station concourse near platform 27.  There are self-service ticket machines in various locations all over the station concourse.

• Left luggage lockers...  There are no left luggage lockers at Paris St Lazare, but there are privately-run luggage storage lockers 4 minutes walk away, see www.lockers.fr.

• Somewhere to eat or drink before your train...

  There are various cafes, bars & restaurants in the shopping mall inside the station.

  Starbucks is as good a place as any for a coffee, it's located at the extreme east end of the top floor of the shopping mall, on the same level as concourse & platforms, at the same end as the platforms used by the intercités to Normandy.  There's also a Burger King nearby.

  For a classy brasserie, try the Lazare, lazare-paris.fr, located on the middle floor (= street level) of the shopping mall, roughly half way between east & west ends, on the right-hand side walking east.

• Food outlets & supermarket...

  There are plenty of shops and kiosks at & around the station.

• Taxis...  There's a taxi rank outside the station.

• Metro & RER express metro...  See the Crossing Paris by metro page for metro advice.  The Paris RER, metro & bus website is www.ratp.fr.

• For more detailed information on the station & its facilities see the official SNCF site www.garesetconnexions.sncf.  See station plan.

Walk into a painting by Monet...

"Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare" by Claude Monet (1877), exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.		"Departure of the Normandy train, Gare St Lazare" by yours truly (2019), exhibited on seat61.com.  This was my train to Le Havre on platform 26...

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