My wife and I are going to Paris for the first time next week and plan on using the bus and Metro system a lot while we are there. I understand that you use the same tickets for both, and I understand that you can buy them in packs of 10 but.. do you use a different ticket each time you get on or off a bus or are they good for a period of time? Do you give the pass to the driver?<BR>Does the bus stop just at certain stops. How do you know which bus goes where? Are hey marked/<BR>What are the mechanics?<BR>I guess I have the same question for Rome as we are going there for the second week.<BR>Thanks.<BR>Ed<BR>

I recommend sticking to the metro. It's very easy to figure out and quick to get anywhere in the city. I never used a bus since the metro was so quick and efficient.<BR><BR>You can buy a carnet of 10 tickets and one ticket can be used to get anywhere in the city. Once you come out of the metro system, then you need another ticket to go back in the turnstile and use it again.<BR><BR>Hope this helps.<BR>

Hi Ed. I use the bus when I can in Paris. The same ticket is good on the Metro and the buses within Paris. If you take the RER outside of Paris, you need another type of ticket.<BR>On the Metro, you need just one ticket to reach your destination. You are allowed to change trains enroute. <BR>On the bus, you need a different ticket each time you get on a different bus.<BR>A transfer then would cost you two tickets.<BR><BR>The tickets are sold in groups of 10 called a carnet. The last time I was in Paris, 18 months ago, a carnet was 58 francs. I do not know what the cost is now. The 58 francs at the time was about $8.00, so at 80 cents per ticket the cost is not bad at all.<BR>I looked around the web, but even the official site still gives the costs in francs and not euros. <BR>When you get on a bus, look for a little machine into which you insert your ticket. This machine time-date stamps the ticket and in effect cancels it. You do the same on the Metro.<BR>You do not hand your ticket to the driver. Some of the larger buses, those that are hinged in the middle, often have two of the cancellations machines.<BR><BR>You do the same on the train, too.<BR>You cancel your ticket before you board the train. <BR><BR>Every so often there is a check point and an inspector asks to see your ticket. These guys get unhappy if you have not followed procedure. I never have been asked for a ticket on the Paris transit system. But if you get caught without a cancelled ticket, I understand that pleading that you are a foreigner and did not understand does not have much impact. After all tourists are a source of revenue!!<BR><BR>So beware of pickpockets as well!!!<BR><BR>

Maps of the bus routes are available. Ask at your hotel for one. The bus stops are marked on the map for each route, and on each bus there are very visible route maps showing the stops. The stops themselves are clearly marked with their names and bus route numbers so you can be certain to await the right bus for your destination. Sometimes there is a sign indicating that you must flag the bus from that particular stop.<BR><BR>Bus/metro tickets can be obtained at most Metro stations, sometimes from a machine, sometimes from an actual person who lives and breathes. If you will travel a lot by public transportation it would be advantageous to buy a "Paris Visite" card for 1, 3 or 5 days, good on the buses and the Metro.<BR><BR>The Eyewitness Guide book for Paris is very helpful about this sort of thing and the actual mechanics of validating your ticket after the bus, etc.<BR><BR>One other thing: many bus routes cease operation early in the evening, so pay attention to the signs about this or you will spend many a long period waiting for a bus that has long since been put away for the night.<BR><BR>Best.

Punching your ticket when you get on the bus/metro is serious business!!! The 1st time we used the transportation we did not know you were supposed to do so. A VERY mad inspector was trying to tell us in French (which we did not understand) what to do. Of course we had no idea what he was talking about, b/c afterall we had purchased the appropriate ticket just b/4 we boarded the bus. He just stood there and kept getting madder & madder. You'd have thought he could have pointed out the machine, at least. C'est la vie. By the way, same goes for Italy!!!

We bought the Paris Visite pass (there is a lot of debate on this site about whether it is cost effective vs. the carnet, etc.). For the bus, you just flash it (comes with its own plastic cover) and on the metro and RER it goes through the turnstile. We bought it for a 5 day term; you date it yourself. We were checked one day getting on a bus, so don't cheat. The Visite pass also gets you some two-fer offers and discounts at some musuem shops. I saved 5% on books at the Louvre, and it would have been 10% on items other than books. Plug Paris Visite into your search, and you can find info on it. We rode the buses more than the metro because we wanted to see where we were going. Yes, it was slower, but everyone has his own preference. Bring you glasses though - those route numbers on the bus map are reeeeaaaaly tiny! Have a ball.

The carnet of 10 tickets costs 9,30 euro now. Prices of all tickets/passes were listed on the RATP site in both francs and euros for a long time, over a year, and now are only in euro, not francs. Here is the exact URL with the prices of various options in euros:<BR>http://www.citefutee.com/informer/tarif.php<BR><BR>That web site www.ratp.fr also has good maps of all the bus lines. There is a general citywide map with all the lines which is not detailed, of course, but you can get an idea of the line numbers you might want (see reseaux, bus de paris), then click on "plans de lignes" at the top of the page to get a detailed map of a particular line. Also, detailed line maps are posted at every bus station stop. If there is a stop near where you're staying, take a look to see if it goes somewhere you want. Here is the map page of RATP:<BR>http://www.citefutee.com/orienter/plans.php<BR><BR>These are basically the customs of transportation systems in every city and country I've been in -- that you have to pull a wire or hit a button to indicate a stop and that you have to compost your ticket, if it is an indiv. one not a pass (otherwise, you could just keep using it).<BR><BR>I have a nice map book with every Parisian bus line in detail that I bought in Paris last year but it is sold online by some bookstores, I think. It's very small and handy.

-You do use a different ticket each you get on a new bus (in Paris...it can be different in other french towns)<BR><BR>-You flash (don't give)the pass to the driver, be it a "Paris Visite" pass or a "carte orange" pass. Do not punch the ticket (used for the metro) which comes along with the pass when on a bus. It would invalidate it.<BR><BR>- If you want to be sure and are alone at the bus stop, waves the driver when the bus is approaching. If nobody onboard ask for the bus to stop and the driver doesn't notice anybody waiting, he could not stop.<BR><BR>-To know which bus goes where ask for a bus map at any metro station. They' ll hand you one for free. Buses are identified mainly by their number (also by the name of the first and last stop, but contrarily to the metro, they're seldom identified this way). On the front and side of the bus will appear a sign like "63-Porte de Clignancourt", 63 being the number of the line and Porte de Clignancourt the last stop it's heading to. Buses on the same line coming *from* Porte de Clignancourt, will have a sign like "63-Porte d'Orleans". I just made up this example.<BR><BR>-At each stop, the numbers of all the bus lines stopping there are posted, along with a paris bus map, the route of the bus stopping there (you can check it if you want to make sure you're not waiting for the bus going in the opposite direction) and a schedule (hour of the first/last bus and expected waiting time in minutes between two buses depending on the day/hour of the day)<BR><BR>-When you're onboard the next stop is usually automatically announced, perhaps not on all buses (I very seldom take the bus, so I don't know for sure), but it won't help you a lot if you don't understand the name (it's not that easy in a foreign language). So you should probably look at the stops to check if you're close to your destination (the bus route is posted inside the bus).<BR><BR>-Once again, the bus could not stop if there's nobody waiting at the stop and nobody onboard is asking for it. So, when you want to hop off at the next stop, you press a little button if nobody else did it before. A red sign then appear behind the driver<BR>saying "ARRET DEMANDE" (stop asked). <BR><BR>-If you're unusure about where exactly you should hop off the bus, ask the driver. Like "Tour Eiffel???". He should tell you what the correct stop is and possibly says he'll tell you when you'll be there (but once again, it's tricky in a foreign language)<BR><BR>-"stop" is "arret" in french. Sounds remotely similar to "array" in english

My tip: since the stop names are posted at the stops, I figure out which one (from the route posted inside the bus) is the one before mine and look for that. Then I know to push the red button.