Paris - Need French instructions for purchasing Navigo & CO
 

Hello...

Leaving for Paris on May 11. Can someone please give me the precise way to ask to buy 2 Navigo Decouverte (spelling??) cards and then load each with a 1-week Carte Orange for 2 zones.

Here's what I used last time (2007) when we had old-fashioned "real" Cartes Oranges, and it was well-understood:

S'il vous plaît, je voudrais acheter deux coupons hebdomadaire, deux zones.

Of course, that didn't involve the Navigo...so I need an updated version involving buying the Navigos first, I suppose.

I'll also need to load each Navigo with the fare from CDG to the city. Will this work?

S'il vous plaît, je voudrais acheter deux billets a centre ville.

Thanks.
Steve Sander

Hello, again...

Just to clarify, I need the three statements asking to:

1. Buy the Navigos
2. Load each with Carte Orange zones 1-2
3. Load each with ticket to the city

Each should cost about 30.2 EUR (5.00 Navigo, 16.80 Carte Orange, 8.40 for the ride to the city).

Does that sound about right?

Thanks, again.
SS

I think you will need a separate paper ticket from CDG to Paris if you just want a Navigo for zones 1-2.

Therefore:

1. Je voudrais deux cartes Navigo Découverte
2. avec zones 1 et 2 pour une semaine
3. et deux billets pour Paris.

As Kerouac is saying, only the value for the 'carte orange' can be loaded to the Navigo Decouverte at this time.

Sometimes, if I think I'll be nervous or klutzy with French requests, I'll use a 'visual aid' and just appear merely dorky. Print Page 4 of this file, circle what you want and write the number 2 next to it...
http://www.optile.com/guide/guide_ta...ptile_2008.pdf

Travelnut, I thought of you when I was reading Dai Sijie's <i>Le Complexe de Di</i> (English version is <i>Mr. Muo's travelling Couch</i>)-- there's a hilarious reference to the Carte Orange just before the end.

I don't understand requests like this. If you don't speak French, how do you: a) pronounce it well enough for a French person to understand you (do you write it down?)?, and b) how do you understand what they say to you in return?

Most Paris métro staff speak English. At least, my experience has been that I've heard them speaking English to lots of people. So wouldn't you rather use English so you know exactly what they're telling you?

Some of us can pronounce decently and understand a lot, but it's very hard to put together a grammatically correct sentence in a foreign language.

In fact, just last week I had to ask a colleague for help in composing an email to ask if there's any chance of spaces opening up on a full guided tour in case of cancellations or no-shows. I'll easily understand their reply, but just couldn't figure out exactly how to ask.

How is anyone supposed to learn if they have to always stick to English just because they haven't mastered perfect French?

I envy you MademoiselleFifi, I'm just the opposite. I can usually compose a sentence IF not too complicated but when they talk back to me, if it's more than two words, I can't understand any of it. LOL Lantement, s'il vous plait. :((

Hi...

My French pronunciation is OK (not great)...I try to use Rosetta Stone and watch a lot of French DVDs for several weeks before going to tune my ear and improve pronunciation. Last time we were there, I did manage a lot of simple French, with very little English spoken.

My approach is like MmeFifi...try to be prepared and give it go. I find the reception is much, much friendlier when I speak French, no matter how bad the grammar or pronunciation. Beside -- it's part of the fun of travel.

Maybe I gave the wrong impression about my skills. I've never taken a French course, but I took lots of Italian and Spanish in school. During our last few trips to Italy and Spain I spoke virtually no English at all. Except for pronunciation, there are a decent number of vocab/cognates and grammar similarities that are very helpful with French.

The main reason for my question was that I just wanted to be pretty sure I was asking for the right things -- Kerouac's explanation about the RER paper tix to Paris being saparate was an example of what I needed to know.

SS

Kerouac...

They don't use the term "coupon hebdomadaire" anymore?

Thanks.
SS

Probably not (I'm no specialist because I've had an annual pass for more than 10 years) -- since there is no longer the "coupon". They probably say something like "un abonnement hebdomadaire" (a weekly subscription).

ssander,

The Transilien site uses the terms "passe Navigo Decouverte" and "Carte Orange Hebdomadaire."