I just discovered two carnets of Paris metro tickets in the secret pocket of my travel purse- unused from January 2004. My husband's co-worker is going to Paris this summer. Will the tickets still work nearly 2 years later?

And, how many of you return with a pocketful of extra tickets? We should start a mail exchange for people who are about to go on vacation.

Not sure about the shelf life, though I have used tickets over 8 months old. But I always keep my cancelled tickets, and bring them home. I use them as bookmarks. No big deal if you lose it, but always a nice reminder of Paris!

well two carnets is a shame to waste

i went in 2004 too. do the tickets look like this photo on the ratp website?

http://www.ratp.info/informer/anglais/ticket_t.php

ChevyChasen-

They do! Still grape-colored! I'm going to send them with her and see if they work. If not, she will have lots of bookmarks to use during her trip.

On the trip before this one, we gave our extra tickets to some newly arrived tourists we met on our last morning, but we forgot to be good samaritans this time around.

Only on Fodors could I get a reply with a picture of the actual ticket within a half an hour of posting. You've got to love it!

They should definitely work, and the color isn't even that important. I've used metro tickets in Paris that were a couple years old.

If they don't work, the station agent will often be willing to give you a replacement.

We usually leave any extras behind for the hotel staff.

On our first trip to Paris we were the luck recipients of some leftover tickets, but on this last trip (was it really already a month ago?) we barely used the metro so only bought what we needed and used them all. (I still carry a bus ticket from Galway 03 in my windbreaker pocket. Can't seem to toss it. Will turn it into a bookmark, thanks!)

Metro tickets don't expire. I used a ticket that was more than 5 years old. Just make sure it didn't get demagnitized. The green ones still work, it is just that the purple ones are the only ones being printed.

I still have 2 Paris metro tickets in my wallet, a $4 metrocard from NY, valid bus pas for San Francisco, and a Paris yearly pass that hasn't been recharged in a year...

When we went in September, we had about 8 older green unused tickets (from a trip in 2001) and all but 2 worked. I suspect the other 2 got demagnetized somehow and not that they actually had expired.