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Getting out to St. Denis & Pere Lechaise via metro

Hi All! I'm looking for advice on what type of metro transportation (navigo easy, one full day, etc..) I need to get out to St. Denis, and Pere Lechaise Cemetery. I can't figure it out. I don't think St. Denis is within the 5 zones for navigo easy, but I'm not really sure. We only have an evening and one full day in Paris. So confused. Please help!

Posted by
7981 posts

All of Paris is zone 1 and all of the metro uses the same t+ zone 1 tickets. Both of these sites are reached on the metro -- St. Denis is slightly over the Paris city line and so in zone 2 but it still uses the metro and the metro is one ticket everywhere. You take the 13 metro and get off at Basilica St. Denis stop using the Easy and one ticket on your Easy. I think Pere LeChaise is best visited from the top walking down hill and so I would take the metro line 3 to Gambetta and enter the cemetery at the top. The Pere LeCHaise metro stop is near the bottom. exit. Be sure to bring a map with you -- you can't find anything without one and they are not that easy to acquire there.

Your Easy carnet of tickets will take you anywhere the metro goes and on the RER within Paris. FWIW. Disney and CDG are both in Zone 5 which is a very long way from Paris -- the Easy of course won't get you there.

Posted by
1217 posts

Thanks! That is exactly what I was looking for. I couldn't find a map of the zones either, so thank you!

Posted by
2537 posts

Tickets have absolutely nothing to do with zones other than as a limit when using the ticket t+ on the RER. Otherwise, one ticket t+, which can be purchased in groups of 10 using the Navigo Easy card, will take you anywhere on the métro, bus, funicular, or tramway.

Zones refer to fares for passes, not tickets.

Posted by
13809 posts

I'll add that Rick has a free audio tour and map here on the site for Pere Lachaise. There is also a printed tour in the Paris guidebook. I tore out the tour and took that along with the printed map. I had to laugh because there were several people ahead of me that I realized were doing Rick's audio tour because they had in their ear buds and were stopping at the same spots.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/paris

There are also free bathrooms in Pere Lachaise - didn't realize that was a good location to find toilettes, lol! I hit one right after the cleaners had been thru so it was good.

Do follow the directions on arriving at the Gambetta stop. I "knew" Paris was hilly - like at Montmartre but yes, Pere Lachaise is just like that so it works out SO much better to start at the top of the hill and criss-cross your way down especially if you have a shortened time frame.

I also printed out the official cemetery map which is the one they have on a big board when you enter.

https://www.api-site.paris.fr/paris/public/2018%2F9%2FCPLMapEN.pdf

Both maps did not always agree and there were a couple of gravesites I was looking for that I never did find using either map, lol. There is always next time!

Posted by
6794 posts

Small tip for ST Denis : only every other line 13 train goes to St Denis. The next train indicator will let you know the destinations of the next trains, so pay attention to that.

Posted by
4684 posts

Because nobody has explicitly stated it, t+ Metro fares are NOT valid on the RER to/from Saint Denis, only the Metro.