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Carte ZOU! Hebdo and Mensuel (Rail Cards)

Posted by (Washington DC) on

Does anyone have experience with the weekly or monthly Carte Zou! deals offered by SNCF? I don't read French and can make no headway on the SNCF webpages (Chrome didn't translate for me). From information posted elsewhere, I think I might save money on trains along the SE coast of France with one of the cards, but I haven't been able to get current prices.

As I understand it, the weekly and monthly cards (annual is different) are passes that cover TER trains (not TGVs) along a self-selected stretch of the SE coast of France, which can be as extensive as Saint-Raphael to Ventimiglia. The price increases with the territory you want to cover. Since I'm also eligible for the senior-discount card (and will almost certainly need it for the rest of my trip), having accurate information about the ZOU! cards is important.

My initial information source (in English, not official).

SNCF's product description (in French).

Pricing website (in French, link provided on the original source webpage), which doesn't return
prices when I input the desired area to be covered by the pass. Perhaps that's not the intent of the webpage?

I couldn't find anything about these (fairly new) cards on the Seat61 website, and it's not mentioned in my 2017 Steves "France" guide book.

There was one earlier thread on the subject here and one on TripAdvisor.

Can anyone shed any light on this murky topic?

Posted by
4684 posts

My French isn't 100%, but my impression is that these aren't passes, but season tickets for regular travel between two specific stations, so unlikely to be useful for tourists.

Posted by
27107 posts

Well, that would certainly make a difference! I wonder if they are tweaking the details about the offers; that might explain the online confusion. In any case, thank you for taking one possibility off the table.

Posted by
20085 posts

I would not discard it just yet. The "Voyageurs Occasionnels" looks like it is 30 EUR (if you are over 26, younger, 15 EUR) for an annual card, then you get a 50% discount on journeys in the area of validity and can bring up to 3 friends with you who don't have cards that will also get the discount when traveling with you. Could be a deal worth looking into, like a Half Fare Card.

Posted by
27107 posts

Thank you, Sam and Toria. Toria's info is more encouraging. I did try that calculation website, but it didn't work for me; it's probably my rather old IE brower. I'll switch to Chrome.

To clarify, I don't think there's a senior discount for the ZOU! cards, but there's a country-wide senior card that would reduce ticket costs everywhere. It's just that I suspect I'll save more with the ZOU! card during the period when I'm on the Riviera. Need to sharpen my pencil and figure it out.

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