Easy question re: Paris Metro

http://parisbytrain.com/paris-train-metro-week-pass-navigo-decouverte/


yes, you need a photo for Navigo ( best Monday to Sunday), don't know if you can buy it at home.
Picture about 1 by 1 ( you place it on the card yourself). I had a 20 year old picture - no one looked at it or my card!
It may be better for some people to buy 10 tickets (carnet)at the time - depend on the length of stay, how often you'll be using the Metro ( bus?) etc..

I used a carnet of 10 tickets and a one-day carte mobilis pass during a recent one-week trip. Worked well for me, and since I developed severe shin splints starting on my second day, I used the metro a lot.

It depends on the day you want to start using the system and how many trips you want to take.

You could easily get shinsplints from walking all those tunnels, especially at some of the line transfer stations.

You need to get yourself a good colour coded map kidfriendly and study it somewhat to make sure you're going to go in the right direction.

I just usually buy a carnet of 10 tickets. I believe you can still do that. To determine your correct direction, just consult the maps in the Metro itself. They are all over the place. You look for the train going in your direction by looking for the name of the last station going your way. When you change trains, you again go through that drill.

Of course you do need to know which station you are going to.

After a couple of times you will get the hang of it. It really is quite easy even if you do not speak French.

What is most economical depends on your schedule and how much you will use public transport. The weekly pass starts Monday and ends Sunday, not seven consecutive days from when you start using it. If you will use three or more rides most days during the week it is well worth it. If your trip straddles parts of two weeks it may not be your best bet. You do need a photo for it and no problem bringing one from home - in fact it is a good idea. I recently posted an exhaustive review of the Navigo decouverte pass at www.fodors.com/community/europe/navigo-card-and-paris.cfm
The nice thing about the pass is at it works on metro, RER, tram and bus, plus Montmartre funicular. Being able to hop on and off the bus without worrying about having a ticket is great. Bus route 69 is a tourist line (others as well - google it)and you can do you own version of a hop on/hop off tour. And in addition to saving the sometimes significnt walking (sometimes including lots of stairs) at connections, on the bus you get to see things as you go along. With a pass you can just jump off when something piques your interest and resume your trip later.
A carnet (car-nay) of ten tickets may also work for you; you get a slight discount over purchasing individual tickets.

You'd need to make 15 trips on the metro for a Decouverte pass to pay off (I think I did the math right on this). I've always bought carnets (10 tickets) and that has been more than enough for a week. The current carnet price is 11.40. It all depends on where you are staying and what you want to see. If you're in the center of Paris you'll probably walk to most venues. Sometimes it's not worth taking the metro as it's just as quick and easy to walk.

In your calculations, do not overlook the fact that a Navigo Decouverte ID card carries a 5€ initial cost (good for ten years), and that carnet tickets are non-refundable - so you can get "stuck" with unused tickets - although they never expire.

A pass is just so convenient - you can go anywhere you like without thinking about petty issues like how you'll get back, standing in line to replenish, and so on.

I would recommend that first time visitors start with a carnet of 10 tickets, because some people find that they take the metro or bus all the time and others walk everywhere and rarely use public transportation.

We used a combination of carnets and days using a Moblis (day pass). The timeframe of days we were there meant that we would have only got 4 days (plus a day when we knew we would only make 2 metro trips), so the Navigo didn't work out to be a good deal.

The reduced price tickets for the carnet are for under 10's (as opposed to 10 and under), and there isn't a reduced rate Moblis ticket, but on the weekend there is a reduced rate "ride all day" pass for under 26's.

We came home with only 3 unused carnet tickets (which I will bring with me to the Toronto GTG if anyone wants them!) which still made the overall strategy much less expensive then if we had purchased the Navigo for the time we could have.

This is super - thanks so much! Now I need to print this thread and figure out what we are doing, where we are going, and when. Thanks again!

Hi...

(Disclaimer...we've been to Paris several times, so this might not apply to first-tmers who are unfamiliar with urban transit systems.)

We always buy the carte orange...but that may be due to our planning -- we tend to arrive on Mon or Tue and stay about a week, which makes it well worthwhile. Then we fill in the extra days with a carnet. The convenience of being able to hop on/hop off buses is great. Last trip (1-week) I took about 40 trips on my ~18 Euro carte orange (zones 1-2) over a period of 6 days. A real bargain! I suspect that the carte orange is a good deal if you can use it as few as 4 days and you plan to use the system alot.

HELPFUL HINT: If you find your self "lost" just hop on any bus without worrying about where it is going. Within one or two stops, you'll be at a Metro station where the map will get you home. Having the carte orange on my Navigo card makes this painless.

PHOTOS: For the Navigo, photos should be about 30 x 20 mm. We always carry a selection of small photos when we go to Europe - frequently come in handy.

GETTING THE NAVIGO: At the CDG station, the people are very helpful (in our experience). I used broken French successfully, but it was clear they all spoke English and are used to dealing with tourists at that station. There is a 5 Euro one-time fee for the Navigo; then they electronically "load" the carte orange onto it. Thereafter, just swipe the card at the Metro turnstile or getting on the bus.

SS

One more thing...

Not sure that this is perfect French, but it worked at the CDG RER station (copied fom my trip report).

Bon jour. S'il vous plait, Je voudrais deux passes Navigo Découverte avec les Cartes Orange Hebdomadaire zones 1 et 2 et deux billets pour Paris.

Roughly translated (and don't forget the greeting and please and thank you afterward -- the French are very polite with strangers and expect you to be, too.):

I would like two non-resident Navigo cards with one-week cartes oranges for zones 1 and 2, and two tickets to Paris.

You'll need separate tix to get into the city, because CDG airport is well beyond zone 2.

SS

Hi!

You can also get used tickets by mail (souvenir, bookmark...) at

www.ticket-metro.com

cool

What a cute web site! Who would have thought there was a market for them. Wonder how many sales they have made.

Some how, on all my trips I use exactly 10 tickets, which is perfect as I always arrive in Paris during the week and depart after 8 or 9 days, making a pass not as practical as a carnet for me.

Wish I could go again right this minute.