France Rail Pass valid on Paris metro zones 1 - 5?

The Métro do not accept any sort of rail passes.

The RER suburban railway only accept passes on a short portion of their network, quoting the info page:

Free travel on the RER Line B only between Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and Paris-Nord station and requires the use of one day of the pass. The France Rail pass is valid on the whole RER Line C.

Line C is what you will use from central Paris to Versailles, but be aware that that very inexpensive RER journey will cost you a whole pass day unless you are already using the pass that day.

You will be on line A at Disneyland and no travel on line A is covered.

You will either need to get TGVs from Disneyland TGV to Avignon and Nice or take the RER A into Paris to connect with the TGVs from there.

To go to Rennes you will need to pay to use the RER A into Paris then connect to the station for Rennes and then from the station to Rennes you could use your pass.

Are you sure that cheap advance purchase tickets on the long distance trains won't be way way cheaper than buying passes?

BTW - Paris Visite is generally accepted as a very BAD deal.

Hello dew3,

I am also staying at the Merriott next week :)

You do not need to go to Paris to get to Rennes from the Disneyland TGV stop. The train schedule may not coordinate with the amount of time that you want to spend at MsM but it is something to look at. The trains to Rennes generally (but not always) coordinate with a bus to MsM if you want to avoid driving all together. One more thing, the train from Disneyland to Rennes is a TGV train and for rail pass travelers, you will need to make a reservation on the TGV train. As Nigel points out, you may want to price out advance point to point ticket versus the price of the pass plus the cost of reservations to determine if the pass will be cost effective. Because you have to make reservations for the TGV trains when using the pass, you give up some of the flexibility that pass offers.

It's between 6-7 hours each way from Disneyland Paris to Mont St. Michel by car. I think you were looking at the St. Michel Mont, as there is one in another region of France which is four hours by car.

There is one direct TGV per day that goes from the Disneyland train station a.k.a. Marne-la-Vallee TGV to Rennes and takes 2:45 minutes. I don't know if your timing would let you get the direct return. I've taken that train, which originates in Alsace and ends in Rennes, bypassing the center of Paris.

Most people say the Paris Visite pass is not worth the money and that you'll do better buying your transportation tickets on your own. The Paris Museum Pass is worth the money if you plan to see a lot of museums, however.
In fact, many people will tell you that the Rail Pass isn't worth the money either, that you still have to pay for seat reservations, the seats set aside for passholders are limited, so you may not even be able to get onto the train you want. On the other hand, buying your tickets in advance will get you very low cost seats. Furthermore, there is a low-cost train to Avignon (Marseille) which originates at Marne-la-Vallee. You should be able to find tickets in the 25 euro range. Before buying any kind of pass, explore all the possibilities.

Edit: the driving times come from viamichelin.com, which is usually pretty accurate.

If you are planning to go to Le Mont Saint Michel (on the border of Normandy and Brittany), the drive should take you about 4.5 hours if there is no traffic -- a big if. The direct TGV train to Rennes from Disneyland takes about 2 hours and the drive from Rennes to MsM is another 2 hours, including wait time for the bus or getting the rental car. So, at a minimum, the trip will take about 4.5 hours in the best case scenario just to get to MsM from Disneyland and then that much to get back. What time of year are you traveling?

all of the replies have been very helpful.

The discussion of the TGV, RER, metro, etc. trains makes more sense. I somewhat gathered there was a complicated restriction scenario where some lines were allowed whereas others were not and the explanation helps confirm this.

In researching this more, it would seem to make more sense to take a train to Caen as our intent is to go to see the Normandy beaches. Access seems easier from Caen since it is north and near that area already whereas Rennes is to the south.

Given the feedback, I don't think we will pursue any passes as we probably wouldn't leverage them enough to warrant the upfront cost.

Thanks again for the help.

....Just seeing the latest post so I will add to this. We are traveling in mid-January. I am not sure what winter driving is like in France but I would prefer to minimize any road related risks if possible particularly with winter driving.

I am using google maps to review drive times which shows Marne-la-Vallée, France to MsM as 4 hours as well as Rennes to MsM as 1 hour. Is this not a realistic baseline for gauging distances and times?

I am still inclined to go the train to Caen route given our interests. Thanks again for the replies.

Caen is a totally different trip and quite a distance from Mont St. Michel. It's not even the same train station to get there. For that you do have to go into Paris. That is not doable as a day trip, and particularly in January when the sun sets at 4:30.

I asked when you are traveling to get a sense of how long the days will be. To each his or her own, but this is going to be a very long day trip during a time with short daytime hours. I'd use www.viamichelin.com to get drive times. I find the viamichelin times to be more accurate than Google maps. If you want to avoid driving, going to Caen first is going to make getting to MsM more difficult. You had the right idea initially of going to Rennes to get to MsM (assuming that is still on the agenda).

Train passes are pretty much never valid for local transit systems. These are entirely different systems. Train passes are also almost never a good deal. The days of the convenient, just hop on train and go Eurail pass expired about the same time Traveler's Cheques became obsolete. There may be particular trips for which they have value, but it is rare and requires very careful costing out of the options as well as awareness that there are limited pass seat reservations available on particular trains so you can't necessarily travel when you want to especially high season.

I've just realized that you intend to visit Mont St Michel this January.

MSM is an island right on the coast and can be quite exposed to storms.

This winter seems to a bit weird, with the jet stream in the wrong place.

This is causing what is now called a "weather bomb" and there were reports today of 100 foot high waves in the North Atlantic, and the system covering most of the water between North America and Europe.

This is projected to go on for some time this winter.

It might be prudent before heading to MSM to check a weather forecast a day or two before.