jan47ete

A suggestion: I laid out my Paris trip broadly as I knew I wanted to visit approximately 8-10 small towns around Paris with castles, forts and medieval settings to know how long to stay.

Then I laid out the closed Tuesday, market day schedule.and new where I wanted to go and when

This way I knew Museum Pass was not going to work for me but I was more interested in the Paris metro passes—and there are quite a few of them.

All the towns were within zone 5 and I had monitored October weather and felt if that less than sunny weather pattern continued, I might be doing more transit usage rather than walking as I had done in past visits.

So when I broke it all down, bought a Navigo Decouverte Pass good for one month for 82E for which you will need a small photomat/passport pic. I got my money’s worth after 6 days and had 92 transit uses in all. So really, really worth it for me.

There was only one office at CDG to buy this pass and a long way from the international arrivals bldg.

There was, I believe, a weekly pass where I could have kept adding money to, and a few others, but I highly recommend plotting out your trip if you are staying any time at all. Individual tickets (1.90E) turn out to be very expensive. I made lots of wrong moves and I was not stressed as I had unlimited access. So my trips were less than 1E each.

What did stress me out was the dishonesty, misinformation, shrug the should attitude of the SCNF/RAPT/metro personnel. Not just one incident but 5incidnts where I was misled and lied to.

Paris is doing a lot to prep for the 2024 Olympics so triple check metro/RER plans and have a backup plan for the day.

billandcindy

We've usually added money to our Navigo passes at the window in one of the Paris metro stations. I presume that option still exists, right? Totally agree that the Navajo is well worth it if you're in Paris for a few weeks or more. And, not only for the savings, as it is much more convenient, etc. Thanks.

Christina

I wouldn't call 1.9 euro very expensive, that's about what it costs to ride the metro where I live in the US. In fact, it costs a lot more given we have limited zones to go that distance and not nearly as far as you can go in Paris for that amount. The one-way fare in NYC is about $2.75.
Perhaps there was some language misundersatnding, it's kind of hard to believe you were lied to five times.

yestravel

What worked for us this past trip was the newish Navigo Easy card. The card itself is 2 euros and then you add tickets onto.
Anyone can use it. For a "special" now you can get a carnet (10 tixs) for 1.40 euro per tix for the Easy Pass each which is a good deal. Line 4 metro was the most convenient for us and there was maintenance going on it. The RATP app showed that and generally the citymapper app we used showed the down times too.

MaineGG

The Navigo pass is such a bargain, especially if you plan to take one or more trips to the outskirts of Paris (Zone 5) in addition to using the bus and Métro within the city for up to a week. During our last stay in Paris, we took a daytrip to Provins (in Zone 5). The round-trip fare for that trip today would be €22,70. The weekly Navigo pass that covers all zones is now €22,80. After the Provins trip, all our local public transport was essentially free. One thing to remember is that the Navigo weekly pass validity is from Monday through Sunday, so plan accordingly if you want to maximize its value.

jan47ete, we have been using RATP passes since our first Carte Orange and have occasionally encountered personnel who were unhelpful. Some time ago we realized that the best service was at a major rail station, possibly because they are more accustomed to dealing with people who arrive in Paris from elsewhere, possibly speak little or no French, and are not familiar with their system. Glad you were able to make such good use of your pass.

jan47ete

My Issues--1) Bourgival—My first weekend in Paris. I checked at my metro station to confirm getting there. Clerk said no problem. Got to the station to take the L train. Trains came but kept setting a destination to Saint Cloud. So after 45 minutes and no train to Bourgival as I thought and the clerk confirmed, I figured I would go to St Cloud and see that town.

Got to St Cloud and found out there was weekend construction on the line and the SCNF was providing bus service from St Cloud to Bourgival an hour trip. Of course bus schedule and train schedule did not mesh, so lots of time wasted both waiting for the bus and then the train back to Paris. Why couldn’t the clerk at my station have told me about the construction and the bus transportation?. Issue 1.

2) Wanted to go to Monfort l’Aubury. Again confirmed with my metro station clerk that I could go from Paris to Monfort. My French is non-existent so I wrote down where I wanted to go. There is where I got the shrug the shoulders answer. Since I used my trusty “I want to go to…” in French I thought I was pretty clear what I wanted. Shrugging of the shoulders did not seem the appropriate answer. I went to the machine at the station and to go there suggested I check with the clerk. Issue 2.

3) Versailles: a one hour trip took me 4 hours. Any instructions say find a metro station that connects with a C line. From line 1, the transfer point is Porte Maillot as noted on the route map on the train. Got there and a lot of construction and C line there at Porte Maillot did not seem to show Versailles RG, so I went back upstairs to the clerk. He spoke English and wrote down the instructions. Take any train on track 2, go to Champ de Mars and take the C train to Versailles RG. I took the train on track 2 and it was going in the wrong direction, so after 2 stops got off and headed back in the direction I just came from. As trains are infrequent I was consistently waiting 20-30 to get a train. Got on the train to get to Champ de Mars and then waited for the train to take me to Versailles RG. A four hour journey that should have taken no more than 60-90 minutes. And the clerk wrote down the instructions so it was not a case of my not understanding French, it was written down by him in English. Issue 3.

4)Moret sur Loring: R train from Paris. I always know the times of the trains heading back to Paris for any trip that I take as some are frequent every 15-20 minutes and some are 45-60 minutes and I don’t like to waste a lot of time waiting at the train station. I get to the station and after trying to find a toilette, I asked the clerk when the next train was and she sent me down the stairs, through the underground passage and up the stairs to track 4 and I got there as I saw the train pull out of the station. Yes, the train was as she said on track 4 but there was no way as she was telling me train was on track 4 for me to climb down the stairs, walk the underground, climb the stairs and make that train. As she was talking to me it was clear to me as she looked at the monitor that the train was approaching the station and yes it was the next train but I would have had to run full out to catch it. I looked at the monitor and saw that the next train would be in 43 minutes. I knew that was incorrect in so far as trains run fairly frequently, so I went back down the stairs, through the tunnel up the stairs and said I missed the train. She said the next train was on track 2 in 20 minutes which I knew to be correct.. To me it seemed apparent by the timing that yes the next train was on track 4 but if she had told me run, hurry, go go to catch it, I would have understood missing it but with these other situations behind me, I had no trust in the metro/train clerks. This is Issue 4.

5)Provins: apparently another line with construction, so were bused to Provins. It is a wonderful little town surrounded by old city walls. As the bus was a temporary situation, no announcements, no route info, so I did not know to get off at the city wall that I saw, and unfortunately ended up at the Gare. Too far for me to walk on an injured leg and again just missed the #50 bus going up there and had to wait an hour for the next scheduled bus which came 30 minutes late, so had waited 90 minutes. While waiting I did check the schedules and routes of the 3 other bus routes that left from the Gare. 2 other bus routes, including the one I had gotten off of, went to the city gates which was the tourist office stop and where I should have gotten off originally. When my original driver started his route again and the bus schedule indicated he was to stop at the tourist office/city gate stop, he told me no, he was not going there. How can that be? He was my original driver, we had stopped there on the way to the Gare and the schedule said the bus should stop there on its route? Issue 5.

It was in my mind, clerks, especially at the town stations, that just could not be bothered, like I was interrupting there schedule of doing nothing. Yes, 2 sides to every story, but these are my recollections.

Sarastro

There are actually two ticket offices at CDG, one at the center of terminal 2 and the other at Roissypôle, near terminal 3. The walk depends upon which international arrival building you use. The official taxi stands are much closer to the arrival gates if you find the walk to the train overly excessive.

All of this information is available in English at www.ratp.fr I have difficulty with someone characterizing French-speaking staff as being dishonest, providing inaccurate information, and displaying attitude unless you yourself speak French and fully understand what is actually being stated. It is not incumbent upon RATP staff to speak any language fluently other than French.

yestravel

In addition to RATP which is quite helpful, citymapper app is great! Not sure how far out it goes, but its gives you all the options for Paris. I use both but find citymapper the better of the 2 apps. While traveling I always wish people spoke better English -- then I laugh at myself --they can speak another language, more than I can. So I am grateful for whatever language they convey info to me in.