Paris Metro
 

We will be staying for a week in Vinciennes this June, and travelling by train into Paris as often as possible.
I'm not sure if it is better to organise Metro tickets from home (Australia), or wait until we arrive in Paris.
Also any general advice about getting around in Paris would be greatly appreciated.
Help please, from all you experienced travellers!
Many thanks, Di

You can buy your tickets or passes when you arrive (at the airport, I assume).

General advice: since you're staying out at the far end of a subway line, you will need at least two tickets per day to get into town and back. Tickets are sold in packs of ten for 10.70€.

If you use more than four in a day, you will want to get a <i>Mobilis</i>, an unlimited daylong pass for a little less money.

There's also a <i>Carte Orange</i> which is valid from Monday to Sunday and costs 15.70&euro;.

And if you want the carte orange that starts on the monday, cut out a favorite close up picture of you, clipped to passport size because you need that photo and the ones in the picture machine make you look worse than your passport photo :)

And if the booth attendant tells you the Carte Orange is only for locals, go to another window.

Jules

jules, I once read that here but never experienced it (thank goodness)

Aww, geez.

Print this out and show it to anyone who says visitors can't buy <i>Cartes Oranges</i>:

http://en.parisinfo.com/paris_map/ru...article%3d6771

Misinformation as always....the entire metro is considered in zone 1 so one ticket as long as it is just the metro...once you get on the RER the zones begin to matter but the ends of some metro lines are in zone 3 physically but still as long as you have stayed on the metro one ticket.

As far as the question of whether Carte Orange can be sold to foreigners, RATP which is the company that runs Paris transportation has always been vague about it. For example, no mention is made of Carte Orange on the RATP English web site. I once had a clerk try to pull this no can sell to foreigner business when I tried to buy a mobilis ticket which BTW is on the English version of the web site. She insisted I could onlybuy a Paris Visite as the local Parisians' taxes subsidize the passes, or so she said. I showed her I had bought a mobilis before by having the card that comes with it and she either realized my name was Tucker not Sucker or whatever.

I have also written to RATP via e mail with the question and the answer comes back with very vague language. Carte Orange, they said, is intended for citizens of Ile de France which is the immediate Paris area the key word being intended. They did not come out and said only for just intended.

In addition, there is a no discrimination rule in the EU now...you can not set up special rules for French citiznes that do not apply to any other member of the EU so just the act of talking English does not mean you are not from the EU but like I said in 99% of the cases it is a moot point but every so often you can a real wise buy like the clerk I had.

Thank you all for this advice. . .I'm continually amazed by all the knowledge that this site taps into!

One other question - what's the best way to get from Charles de Gaulle airport to Vinciennes? I'm assuming rail, but perhaps there's another alternative? We'll be arriving mid-afternoon.
Thanks, Di

&quot;Misinformation as always&quot; is not only confrontational, but factually incorrect. You need to back up your gibe by providing a citation to anything I have posted here that was flat wrong.

<b>TWO TICKETS WILL BE REQUIRED TO GET INTO TOWN AND BACK. ONE TO GET IN, AND ONE TO GET BACK.</b> Unless our visitors remain within the M&eacute;tro system all day, they will need a minimum of two tickets per day to get from and to their lodging.

I, too, emailed RATP to ask if residency was a requirement for buying a <i>Carte Orange</i>, and they replied in the negative. I guess my French is better than some.

The &quot;two tickets&quot; mentioned above was meant to mean 1 ticket to come into Paris, and another to go back to Vincennes. One would assume the OP would be coming up to ground for a while before returning.

sorry for the cross-post.