Paris to Versailles and other metro/travel questions

Depends on what is affordable to you on the Uber question. Mass transit will be 2.50€ if you go by metro and RER and Uber will be at least 10 times that.
First, use RATP or Citymapper for transit directions, not Google. That being said, the directions may not be what you expect because you are heading from the the 14th. When purchasing your ticket, the will be 2.50€ unless you decide to a bus to a train which will increase the cost by 2€

My daughter and I were in Paris in April and went to Versailles. We stayed in the 7th and took the RER C direct - no changes, from Pont de l’Alma to Versailles. We used google and Apple Maps to figure out what train we needed. We took the metro a lot in Paris and used the ile de France mobilities and bought tickets as needed. If you see yourself using public transport a lot, you can buy tickets in “batches” and they are cheaper, although we tended to just purchase the tickets as needed - very easy.

Paris is transitioning,in general, to doing tap in/out on the metro.

I would say the opposite has happened. The old point-to-point tickets (origine-destination) for the Transiline/RER trains, which required tap in/out, have been replaced with a single métro/train/RER (MTR) ticket at 2.50€ each, no matter how many you purchase. You no longer need a specific ticket for Versailles, any 2.50€ MTR ticket will take you there. Same for the return.

I would caution against using google maps for information about public transportation in Paris. Google is full of inaccuracies and obscure routings. Download and use one of these apps:

Ile de France Mobilités
Bonjour RATP
Citymapper

You can take a Taxi Parisien or any of the VTCs such as: Bolt, FreeNow (purchased by Lyft), or Uber. Any of those will cost many times more than a 2.50€ MTR ticket and will likely take longer to reach Versailles.

All tickets are now electronic. Purchase a Navigo Easy card (2€) and load as many MTR tickets as you like. Nothing to worry about, just do not enter the transportation network without first validating your Easy card, keeping it with you until you exit.

You can set up the Navigo easy card in Apple wallet if you have an iPhone (I would imagine it also works on android) and purchase tickets as you go. Then just tap your phone to enter or exit the metro. You can purchase the physical card, it costs a couple of euros, then you can add tickets to it at the ticket machines, but this is slower as there can be line ups at the machines. I also had an issue with the physical card when I had tapped in to enter the metro station, but when I went to leave, it wouldn’t let me out. The card had demagnetized. Fortunately, I had the app on my phone, and bought a ticket to get me out. I caught the train to Versailles at the St. Michel metro stop, which is by the river near Notre Dame. It is a direct train, Versailles is the last stop. Just before the last stop, transit police boarded and checked all fares. It’s the only place my ticket was ever checked. As others have said, the ticket to Versailles is just the ordinary 2.50 euro metro ticket. Definitely use Citymapper instead of google.

One train ticket for the entire Ile de France metro or RER

You never 'tap out' on the metro and never have. The RER used to be point to point tickets and thus was tap out, and those machines are still there, so you may need to tap out on the RER -- the system knows you are on a continuous trip, so if you have to tap in on the metro and then tap in again on an intersecting RER to get to your destination. e.g. the RER C for Versailles, the system knows and doesn't charge a new ticket.

You put these tickets on the Navigo Easy. The Navigo Decouverte weekly pass also works.

Note that the RER C line splits and goes many places so be sure to take the one going to Versailles Rive Gauche Chateau.
Note that the RER C is often closed in central Paris for one issue or another, often for weeks at a time -- so you may have to go around it boarding outside downtown Paris or even find another route altogether. If RATP.Fr is not giving you an RER C route to Versailles, it is probably not running.

The RER is great, just do it.

Hi Leslie,

Think of it this way:
• Inside Paris (metro, buses): tap-in is common.
• Outside Paris (like Versailles): you still need a specific ticket.

For Versailles, you cannot just tap a regular metro ticket. You must have a ticket valid for zones 1–4. That ticket is valid on: RER C, Transilien Line N and Line L.

You can get more info on this link to get from Paris to Versailles by train.

Many first-time Versailles visitors choose Uber to go there, then train back.

• Outside Paris (like Versailles): you still need a specific ticket.

You need specifically a métro/train/RER ticket at 2.50€. The bulk of the information in the above post is obsolete.