Paris Metro/Bus experts: Help please!
 

In years past I was quite adept at using both the Metro and bus systems in Paris. But it's been a long time and I'll probably be rusty on my next trip. I'm sure I can still plot a route and get around well enough. But I can't find a map I used to find very helpful. I thought it was online, part of the ratp interactive map network. But I don't see it online.

The map I'm thinking of showed all the entrance/exit points for each metro station. I found it very useful, like being able to tell whether I needed to cross the street to go underground.

Does anyone know this map? Was it perhaps a paper map I'm thinking of? I think I had the Streetwise map.

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Also: There are wall maps inside each metro station which show where each bus line stops in the surrounding neighborhood. Are those maps available anywhere else?

Thanks for any help!

Yes, there are maps into all metro stations of both the metro/RER network and the bus network. You know you can ask the clerk to give you a map and carry it around with you (no. 2 has the entire network). Besides, the maps in the stations show all the exits and the surrounding neighborhood. When you get to a corner with a metro stop, can't you just look for the metro sign to figure out whether you need to cross the street or not to enter? Off the top of my head, I can't think of any metro stop that doesn't have an entrance on both sides of the street, though, that's pretty common.

I think you are making this too difficult.

if you have data while in Paris, Citymapper app. Indicates the exact stops. Also metro entrances etc.

I don't know if this will answer your question. For years and years, I've carried around The Essential Paris 3 Plans par Arrondissement, that shows bus, metro routes and regular street maps on separate pages. I know many are switching to smart phone apps, but I still prefer a book. This map book can be purchased at many street kiosks and at all train stations.

In another location, I read that Streetwise had gone out of business.

Everything you may need can be found on line at the RATP site.

http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/c_21879/visiting-paris/

I agree that 99% of the time one doesn't require a map to locate the entrance/exit points. But then there's a station like Saint-Michel. As I recall, there were entrance points 2 and 3 blocks away, as well as a connector tunnel to another station (Cluny?). When I stayed in that neighborhood I used that station a lot and found it very useful having such a map.

When we were in Paris, we used google maps, and found them very helpful. It told which exit to take from the metro, which is always helpful. Just don't take their travel times seriously, as apparently they've never been to Paris. They thin it takes 1 minute to change trains!

Thé bus stations have been revamped and now feature detailed Maps listing all stops for the lines being served by a specific station. You can buy a Bus map book at any newsstand - get the "L'Indispensable" version.

Agree with fuzzbucket. We use L'Indispensable, though just showing up at a métro station or bus station and looking at the displayed map works fine for us as well.

Keep in mind that all of the bus route books will be obsolete as of September 2018 when half of the RATP bus lines will be modified and other new lines will be created.

http://paris.grand-paris-des-bus.fr/

Speaking of the bus stops, they now possess USB sockets on the side panel for recharging phones and other equipment.

On what day in September do the bus routes/books change?

Many of the busses have electronic signs showing the stops--that should be a major improvement for you.

When I was in Paris in May 2016, I also used:

http://parismap360.com/paris-bus-map#.WPPB6iMrL3Q

It could be down-loaded as a pdf in my Kindle so I could refer to it when wi-fi wasn't available. Per kerouac above, make sure you get the most up to date version.

Age and asthma made Metro difficult for me so I only used busses and cabs. But, signage is good--you shouldn't have any trouble. DH carried a compass as we often got turned around upon surfacing from the subway!

Have a great trip.

<i>On what day in September do the bus routes/books change?</i>

Well, first they have to finalize all of the new routes. The change is still more than 16 months away, but one thing that I did read about it is that it will be a "big bang" -- all of the routes will change on the same day. It will be quite a feat just changing all of the route maps in the buses and on the bus stops, so I find the event rather hard to imagine. Just that makes it seem to me that it will happen on a Sunday, the day of lowest traffic when some of the lines are not even operating.

I'm going to piggy-back with a related (dumb) question: years ago we were able to use one ticket on the metro to get to a destination, even if changing to different lines was involved. Last December, when we tried using the same ticket during a trip to one destination involving a transfer the second line's machines would not accept our tickets and we had to use new ones.

Can you no longer make it to one destination on one ticket when it involves a transfer?

"The second line's machines?" Something isn't right here.

Yes Dukey, I did wonder if we missed a turn somewhere in order to transfer without having to exit one line and go through the entrance machines to another... a distinct possibility.

Kerouac-now I MUST know what day the change will occur. I don't want to be ANYWHERE NEAR Paris that day.

If you exceeded the 90 minute window for transfers, or attempted to change bus lines going in the opposite direction, that might have been the problem.