20. French passport now required for buying Carte Orange.
0 responses; most recent on 05/30/2007, 01:10 pm

1. whomever is posting these types of messages (no text message, no reply links) is very annoying
2. where do you get this information?
3. do all French tranportation users own a passport?

Well I was there last week and saw an American couple purchasing a Carte Orange.....

one of our "favorite" posters is just playing games. Pretty obvious who it is . . . . . .

Haven't seen it, but a lot of people don't even understand the difference in being a resident and a citizen. Furthermore, if Paris wanted to restrict it to local residents, a French passport wouldn't prove anything, as you could live very far away.

Must be a hoax. RATP's website says nothing about needing a French passport.
What you do need is a photo. As it has been always the case.

Bought two coupons hebdomaires about three weeks ago in a tabac (we have the cards already) and no one asked me anything despite my pathetic French.

A British train magazine i subscribe to some months back claimed just such a thing would be happening to Carte Orange - being restricted not to French passport holders but Ile-de-France residents as it's a highly subsidized service mainly for residents.

I've heard no such development and when i mentioned it once was shot down - have not heard or read it recently in this magazine that is usually dead right on.

So it would not surprise me if it happened but saying a French passport would be required is an obvious sign of a naive hoaxer as as mentioned many French and especially Paris residents do not have French passports - they all do have the mandatory Carte d'Identity (sp?) or identity card they are required to carry i believe at all times.

I thought the poster was referring to buying a SIM card for the Orange cell phone network, for which a passport, or national identity card, is indeed required, along with proof of address.

Post 911 security measures, or French bureaucracy again, I know not which

the "phantom" poster is just playing games. Take a look at the thread Travelnut mentions. This isn't the first one like it.

It is a "no message" thread and the poster is 1) trying to fake out people about various things (this one is about the carte orange but there have been other topics) and 2) showing off that he can manipulate thread formats . . . . .

I was wondering, being a naive techno-computer type how such a post could be made on Fodor's - or is it an inside job?

Nope, not an inside job. Just like posts that are changed after they are "posted" . . . . . . .

Google says that this is an initiative of the deputy mayor of one community in the Ile de France region.

He is calling for a Carte Orange that would get rid of the current zonal pricing system, to replace it with a flat fee of EUR 50/month for the whole Ile-de-France public transport network.
This flat fee should only be available for IdF residents who have to live further and further away from the city of Paris and have to commute through a larger number of zones, and thus pay a lot to get to their workplaces in Paris.

So far, this proposal has been backed by several IdF communities while transport officials say it would be too costly to implement.

Sounds to me more like an ongoing political discussion than like something that will come into effect soon - if ever.

Maybe it's just a challenge - or food for thought, grist for the mill, that sort of thing.

Author: Robespierre
Date: 05/30/2007, 06:55 pm
Maybe it's just a challenge - or food for thought, grist for the mill, that sort of thing.

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Posting screwed-up and inaccurate messages is an intellectual challenge?

"...screwed-up and inaccurate..."

Or deliberately misleading? Your call.

But it does get attention now doesn't it and when you aren't getting it in person, well...

just someone who wants to sit back and see others perplex over it - everytime we post on this he/she gets her jollies.

I suggest that in the future we just ignore it, thereby defeating his/her purpose.

Good idea.

Rob - I must confess that I have always suspected that it was you as you are the master of the nuances of this forum. As such I have never taken it seriously.