Warning: this place is seriously bad for your karma! A vast, sprawling, multi-level maze that must surely have been designed by a committee of idiots and the clinically insane. It is, by a very wide margin, the most appallingly designed station I have ever had the misfortune to find myself in.
There is an *astonishing* amount of signage everywhere, and yet, paradoxically, it doesn't actually help you navigate the place, because it is so misleading and confusing that it actually makes it more likely that you will quickly get hopelessly lost and end up wandering around for ages, along corridors, down stairs, up escalators and along platforms, walking around in circles and doubling back on yourself, while desperately trying to find you desired train or exit.
And that's before you add the people - tens of thousands of them, all walking terribly fast and usually straight at you from all directions. It is impossible to stand still long enough to get your bearings or - god forbid - read the maddening signage without people constantly jostling you about and tutting at you for getting in their way.
My best advice is to head for the nearest wall, press your back flat against it, close your eyes and count to fifty, breathing slow, deep breaths to regain your composure. Then open your eyes, take another very deep breath and just charge straight for the nearest 'Sortie' (Exit) sign, not stopping for anyone (they wouldn't stop for you, so f*ck 'em!). Repeat this procedure as many times as necessary until you finally emerge, most likely by sheer chance, onto a street somewhere.
Then find a nearby bar and have a stiff drink to sooth your brutalised karma, and resolve never to set foot inside that station again - ever!
I know that Parisians like to take a - perverse - pride in *claiming* that Chatelet-Les Halles is the largest and busiest underground station in Europe but, trust me, that claim is nothing to be proud of - and may not in fact true, either. We have a combined rail and underground station in London that is arguably larger and even busier at peak times - Waterloo Station. But it doesn't feel like it is, because Waterloo Station actually *works*; it has a well-designed lay-out, and signage that is clear, accurate and helpful! Even a tourist who has never visited Waterloo before can probably zip through it in 5 minutes, at peak rush hour. I defy anyone to prove that you can do the same at Chatelet-Les Halles.
And, by the way, Gare du Nord is almost as bad, and for pretty-much the same reasons; terrible lay-out and maddeningly unhelpful - or pathetically insufficient - signage.
My advice would be to demolish both stations and start again from scratch - but use British architects and signage designers, because we would actually do it properly. :) read more