We will be living in Paris 6 June to 8 July, 2019 and are trying to figure out the best train pass options. We have found the Navigo Découverte passes and will probably buy weekly passes each week. My questions are:
Thanks for your help!
Rail passes are sort of obsolete; they went out with traveler's checks. All high speed trains require seat reservations along with the pass and those are not cheap; it is sometimes cheaper to just buy a ticket in advance. The ND covers all train travel in the Ile de France and so is very handy for lots of great day trips from Paris. For longer trips, buy tickets in advance or just pick them up when you need them. No eurail type pass includes local transportation anywhere (that I am aware of).
How are you arriving and how are you leaving Paris?
The weekly pass begins 00:01 on Monday and goes until Midnight the following Sunday night. If you arrive on June 6, that is a Thursday, so it will only be valid through Sunday, so you only get 4 days out of it.
If you are leaving on July 8, that is a Monday, so it will not be valid that day.
Buy a monthly pass when you arrive for 75.20 EUR, plus the 5 EUR set up fee. Then renew it for 1 week at 22.80 EUR. You still will have to pay for last day's travel out of pocket, but getting 1 month plus 1 week saves 16 EUR over buying 5 1-week passes.
A Eurail France Pass is available for anywhere from 1 to 8 days of travel within a month and only covers longer-distance trains, not the Paris Metro or the commuter RER system (which has inconveniently changed its name to "Train"). It's possible to buy more than one of these, but I'd also question whether you're really going to take that many trips outside of Paris. The most common same-day-return side trips tend to be relatively short and cheap train tickets.
