I admit it - I've read the previous posts about getting around in Paris, and I'm more confused than ever.

We'll be there a week, arriving on Saturday, Sept 23 and staying until Sept 30. We're staying in the 15th, and we're planning to take the train / transit into Paris. I realize we're not close to the major sites, and I think we'll be using public transit fairly often during the week. (Probably take the Batobus once or twice, but as something to do, rather than actual transit.)

So what's best to buy? A friend suggested the carte orange, but I've also read of other possibilities. Do we need an ID picture for the carte orange?

Thanks!

The Carte Orange gives unlimited transportation (not Batobus) from Monday to Sunday. That is the important thing to know. A tourist can generally get his money's worth even if he buys one on Tuesday or Wednesday. Starting Thursday, you can only buy one starting the following week. So you can get a Carte Orange starting on Monday September 25th. There are Photomatons everywhere (particularly in metro stations, train stations and Monoprix) for the photo.

Personally, I think the Carte Orange is the best value for the money especially since you'll be visiting Paris for a week. Oui, oui, you will need a photo for id. Just a little B&W passport sized one will do and you can bring it from home if you like. If you have a digital camera and printer you can buy some photo paper & print it out at home.

LOL - I remember my 3rd trip walking around for a 1/2 hour in Gare du Nord trying to find a working photo booth - none of them worked, they'd been vandalized! So just bring it from home. The last thing you need is the irritation of wasting time trying to find a photo booth in good working condition.
http://tinyurl.com.au/x.php?fo

And, hey, the great thing about the 15th is that you'll be closer to the Eiffel Tower!!

Sorry, Kerouac, our posts crossed. I was composing my answer while you'd posted yours so it sounds as if I'm negating your answer as to the photomatons. Just giving my own experience.

Don't worry beatchick, I'm not offended. There are times when nothing seems to work.

And you live in Paris, so you would know!

BTW, this Beat Chick loves your name and has been curious about something for a long while. Is that a family name or do you, too, love the work of Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac?

Beat Chick, I admire the person's life even more than what he wrote (although I have read all of it and liked most of it) -- well, except for the sleazy, depressing end of his life, but I guess that's what you get for burning the candle at both ends.

I will even admit that I made a special trip to see his grave in Lowell, Massachusetts, one time when driving between Montréal and Boston. Many amazing messages on the grave.

Thanks for the replies - they help!

Right after posting this, my friend emailed to say that she also has bought the Paris Visite pass. Any opinions on which would be best for us, given our Saturday to Saturday stay? Is there one that would allow us to go from CDG into the city? Maybe a 2 day Paris Visite to get us through Saturday & Sunday, then the carte orange?

You would need a zone 1-5 Paris Visite pass to get from CDG to Paris. It costs E26.65. Better to buy an individual ticket for E8.10 which will get you into Paris on the RER B line and allow unlimited transfers to the Metro or other RER lines so long as you don't exit the system. You'll go from the airport to within a few blocks of any hotel on a single ticket.

For the rest of Saturday and Sunday, it might be simplest to buy a carnet of ten tickets for E10.90 and share them. Each ticket will give you the same unlimited transfers on the Metro and RER within zones 1-2. Each bus ride requires a new ticket. Or if you know you're going to be taking a lot of rides, you could buy a one-day zone 1-2 Mobilis pass (E5.50) for either Saturday or Sunday--or one for each day. If you buy more than one, assign a date to each one so you don't mix them up. They're only good for the day they are first used.

To clarify, the E26.75 price would be for a two-day zone 1-5 Paris Visite pass.

One more thing. Go to www.ratp.fr to download and print a Metro/RER map for central Paris and a RER map that shows service to outlying zones, including CDG. If you'll be returning to CDG when you leave Paris, be aware that the RER B line divides northeast of the city. Be sure you get on a train that is going to the airport.

There ought to be software for calculating the best ticket options! The Paris Visite might prove best for someone taking the RER from the airport to the city, who was not arriving on a Monday or Tuesday, but was taking an out-of-Paris trip to a high-zone destination, such as Euro-Disney, during their stay, or for that matter, planned a little shopping madness at Galleries Lafayette (10 percent discount on many purchases). Usually, though, that pass has more power than a person will use.

The software is called a spreadsheet. On it, one can add up potential out-zone trips, then estimate how many times one will go into the M&eacute;tro/RER or get on a bus each day, and compare the price of individual <i>carnet</i> tickets to a <i>Mobilis</i> per day (<i>Ticket Jeunes</i> for youths on weekends) to a <i>Carte Orange</i> for the week.

Compared to Transport for London's Byzantine schemes, RATP tariffs are kid's stuff.

<i>p.s.</i> Off the top of my head, I don't think <i>Paris Visite</i> discounts save money often enough to even bother factoring in.

&quot;I admire the person's life even more than what he wrote&quot;
Me, too, except for the way he treated his daughter, bless her heart.

A friend of mine once visited Kerouac's grave - he said it was customary to leave whiskey, which he did.

Hi Robespierre,

No, I don't want to do any math. And if I did I'd come up with the wrong sums, for sure! Why should I have to look up obscure stuff like the RER zones of charming towns and chateaux?

All of that would be relatively easy to program. But then there are tougher matters. What's the monetary value of the jetlagged 15-minute wait in the ticket line at Charles de Gaulle on a July morning, when those pesky kiosks won't take my American credit card? Will I lose two of my three Mobilis cards? (I probably will.) And what if I've overestimated my stamina and end up too tuckered to hike from Notre Dame to the Louvre, and so forth?

So many variables. So hard to think. Maybe it's best to just stay in the hotel room, dine on room service and browse guidebooks!

Dave

Uh, the possibility of variations is a constant. If you have the information the software would ask for, you have available all you would need in order to calculate it either way. If there are mis-estimations, they would apply equally to both methodologies.

If there's a way to estimate that &quot;monetary value of the jetlagged 15-minute wait&quot; then it can be entered into either algorithm.

Fares to outlying stations can be looked up (using the software engine) here: http://www.transilien.com/MOVIE/FR/PrRForm.htm

I can't help you with your data entry issues.

I also don't see the relevance of the possibility that you will lose two of your three <i>Mobilis</i> coupons to how you decide what to buy.

If the risk of that happening exceeds &quot;very slight,&quot; you probably shouldn't be allowed out on your own anyway.

&quot;You probably shouldn't be allowed out on your own.&quot;

Definitely not!

Dave

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