We will be in Paris next month for four days and staying at a hotel in Arcueil . Arcueil is just south of the city of Paris if I am reading the map correctly . What type of pass would be best to travel from our hotel to central Paris as well as around the center of Paris ? We will also be going to Versailles for a day . Is there one pass that would work on the Metro, Trains, and buses ?
Thanks in advance for your help !
There is a weekly pass that runs Monday morning to Sunday night called the Navigo Semaine. its a pretty good value. If you are flying into Paris it also will get you from CDG to Arcueil on the RER B, which is also the likely train to get to central Paris and also to Versailles and back. Bring 1" by 1.25" passport type photos with you. Cost is 22.15 EUR plus an initial set-up fee, of 5 EUR I think.
In French: http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/v_154900/navigo-mois-et-navigo-semaine/
It is less expensive than the Paris Visite for 63.90 for all zones for 5 days even if you have to buy 2 weeks of the Navigo Semaine if your stay spans a weekend.
the thing you want is the Navigo Decouverte which you then load with the pass semaine or weekly pass; there is also a monthly pass you can load on if you are there for a calendar month or close to that. I only say this because there is another product called the Navigo pass which is not available to tourists. You buy the Navigo Decouverte card for 5 Euro and it is refillable for at least 10 years. You then load the semaine onto it with a clerk or on the machines. Bring a head shot 25/30 mm which you can just size and print on your computer. The pass cannot be loaded after Thursday for the current week; you can load it for the following week starting Monday from Friday on until the next Thursday. given that you will be commuting so far every day, this is pretty much the only pass that makes sense; if you arrive on the weekend and need friday-Sunday coverage look at the price of Mobilis day passes and see if they work for those days.
