Trying to get info on the Carte Orange for my visit to Paris later this month. The Paris Transportation website dosen't seem to mention the Carte Orange. It seems to really push the Viste Paris Card. This card seems to be more expensive than the Carte Orange, and offers discounts to site I have no interest in seeing. Has anyone been to Paris lately, and could give me info on the Carte Orange, like price, where to buy one. Thanks.

There are lots of existing posts about the Carte Orange. Here's one with good info:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34485350

This question comes up from time to time...

No mention is made of Carte Orange on the RATP's English web site but it is on the French web site. Why?

Basically according to the RATP Carte Orange is intended for residents of the Paris area (ile de France) as Carte Orange is heavily subsidized by their taxes.

Nobody will come out and say it is or isn't legal for non residents of the region to procure one. Is it illegal to do so? Well from time to time, isolated individuals have reported they were refuseda Carte Orange at a Metro station. In most cases, they either went to another clerk at the same station or another station and had no trouble.

It would seem that RATP would prefer clerks not sell obvious tourists Carte Orange and try to push Paris Visite. I even had that trouble once when trying to buy a Mobilis ticket, a one day pass but Mobilis at least is listed and described on the English web site.

So it is a murky issue. Also murky is the fact that EU regulations prohibit discrimination against other EU citizens. So if they sell Carte Orange to other French citizens, even those who don't live in the Paris area, then they have to sell them to citizens of any of the other 24 EU nations including England, Holland, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic etc.

So probably rather than hassling or trying to figure out who is who, they just say what the hell and sell it to anybody who wants one.

I just returned from Paris, where I easily bought a Carte Orange (twice actually as I was there for two weeks) from the ticket machine. Very easy to do -- you can hit the British flag for the English version, then just select Carte Orange ($14.50 for zones 1 and 2 which is all you are likely to need) and pay by credit card. The machine, of course, doesn't care if you are a resident or a tourist. Couldn't have been easier. The Carte Orange is good for Monday through Sunday -- the dates are printed on the ticket. Not sure if all metro stations have the machines, but if yours doesn't and the person at the window won't sell you a Carte Orange, just go to another station.

YOu can get replacement tickets from machines, but it is "illegal" (against regulations) to buy solely a Carte Orange ticket if you don't already have the pass card with your photo on it. You must have the card with photo ID, and you must copy the ID number from the card onto the ticket.

You can get fined if you don't have the ID card with photo attached, because it is part of the deal. The reason is so various people can't share one ticket.

And don't forget the CO is good on buses where all you do is show the cover. Do NOT put the ticket in the ticket machine--it will eat it. Buses are really great.

I've read that the station officials do check for the pass ID at times.

Found this link on the French website for the pricing to the different zones. The weekly CO is referred to as HEBDO.

http://www.citefutee.com/informer/ta...nnements_o.php

Btw, I've been getting conflicting timings as to when to buy the CO.
Is it possible to purchase the CO 1 week in advance? Say on Friday, I buy for the week starting next Mon?

I can attest that both parts of the C.O. pass are required if you are asked by controllers to produce them. My hubby had to hastily reassemble his down in a metro station (near the track) b/c he thought he'd be cool and just handle the ticket in/out of his pocket.

Last time I bought one, it was at the main billets window in Gare du Nord. The lovely lady readily sold it to me -and- actually took my previously used id card and assembled the whole thing for me, even logging the id number on the ticket. I was kind of blown away by all that customer service! (usually they just push it all over to you, you figure it out yourself). I did remember to open my request with 'Bonjour, Madame', maybe that warmed her up

I have to say, that when I saw the heading on this post, it set my teeth on edge-because, I didn't have my photo attached to my ID for my Carte Orange, and I got stopped and fined by station officials. That was in 1996, so I can personally attest that what Christina says is true-if you don't have the photo affixed to your ID for the C.O. they do check from time to time in the stations, and they will fine you, and no, I couldn't use the ignorant foreigner excuse. grrr

I hope you noticed the CO is only good for a week STARTING on Monday. If you don't purchase on a Monday, you lose the preceeding days.

We usually fly on Tuesday, land on Wednesday and purchase any passes on Thursday morning. CO is useless to us. We use the carnets of 10 tickets. They are less expensive than the Paris Viste Pass and if you don't use them all, you can take them home and use them on a return visit. I agree with your assessment that the Viste Pass offers discounts to things you would never want to see. We've also discovered that we prefer to walk unless the distance is great. It's so much fun to walk in Paris!

Have a great trip.

Tiger Lily:

A Carte Orange is valid from Monday to Sunday. It can be purchased up until Wednesday for the current week and starting Friday for the following week. Carte Orange cards are not sold on Thursday.

We have landed on a Wednesday and purchased the CO for the remaining part of the week. In five days you will probably travel enough to warrant it especially if using the buses which require a new ticket if you change buses. We also buy our museum passes at the same time so it is one stop shopping. If you do not get a CO for some reason and know there will be one day in which you will use the transportation system a lot, a mobilis pass for about 5E may be a good purchase.

Thanks MorganB =)

We were in Paris in April and bought our Carte Orange transportation passes, as always, at the window in the D'Orsay station. We've never had any trouble. We've been using the same grey plastic folders, with our photos on them, for the last 4 years, and we just buy the paper tickets, to slide into them, at the window. I did type all my requests up -- 2 Carte Orange and 4 Mobilis passes -- and handed it to the clerk, which I think was much easier for her. She couldn't have been more helpful. We bought ours on a Saturday to use on the following Monday and purchased the Mobilis passes to use on Saturday and Sunday.

Best,
Sandy