Question re train from Paris

We will be travelling by train from Paris to Brussels.What is the name of the train station where we will arrive in Brussels?

How far is this from the Best Western City Centre hotel,Rue Royale? Will we require a taxi?

Thanks for replies.

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The Thalys arrives at Bruxelles-Midi (in Dutch, Brussel-Zuid, in English, Brussels South) although your ticket covers you on any local train to Bruxelles-Central or Bruxelles-Nord.

Unfortunately this is no help for you as your hotel is not very close to either of these (as the crow flies it is is not all that far from the Gare du Nord but I would not suggest you attempt to walk it, unless you have a good map and WANT to pass the ladies in windows...). In fact this is another of those mis-named hotels that is in my opinion misleadingly named. Its website first says that it is conveniently located downtown near Royal Palace and Grand%26#39; Place and then gives a list of distances that shows it is in fact 1.5 km away from the first and 2 km from the second! That means it must be about 4 km from Gare du Midi.

It is, however, only about 200m from Botanique metro station which means that you don%26#39;t have to take a taxi if you can manage to walk that far with your luggage. You can take metro line 2/6, direction Simonis-ELISABETH (pay attention because Simonis-Léopold is the opposite direction!) and get off at Botanique. At Midi, just follow the M signs for the metro, buy your ticket from the machines or ticket office (€1.70 single or you can buy a 10-trip card to use between you, or it is worth buying a day card per person if taking 3+ trips each in any one day, each trip up to 60 mins changing bus/tram/metro as often as necessary within that time).

If you do take the metro, when you arrive at Botanique look for a sign to the Cité Administrative/Tour des Finances, I am not sure what they have done with the metro exits in that area since they have mucked things around a bit, but basically you want to be on the opposite side of the crossroad from the Botanical Gardens; to orientate yourselves, looking up or down rue Royale, on the Gardens side you will see the street ends at a church, on the other side you won%26#39;t see the end (Place Royale) and that is the side you want. Looking that way, with a big skyscraper (the Tour des Finances) on your right, you should see, on the left-hand side of the street, the flags of the Astoria hotel: yours is opposite. Map on here - it used to be called the President: booking.com/hotel/be/presidentcentre.en.html