Where do I buy a Navigo Easy pass in plastic?

Have you found this website - it seems to answer your questions.

https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/tickets-fares/media/navigo-decouverte-travel-card

The website doesn't answer this question i.e. how to get the plastic rather than cardboard cards. We bought them from information agents in the metro. They don't deal in cash and so you will need to buy with credit card. They can load the card with tickets when you buy it; you can also and in future load it on the machines. Ours were plastic. I have heard that the ones dispensed in machines when available are cardboard but haven't seen it for myself.

Thanks. You give me hope. I'm assuming this was fairly recently. The whole system rose anew from the ashes on January 1. I should have mentioned that we are in the US and won't be going to Paris till next month.

To tell the truth, I actually want to know how to get one at Gare du Nord at 9:30 pm on a Sunday, if possible. But I'll take any help I can get here. I can always get a paper one at a machine on Sunday night, I guess, and get a plastic one during the next day somewhere.

You can buy the plastic pass at machines, it can just be a little confusing because there are separate machines to buy the pass and recharge them. I highly recommend this Les Frenchies video, as it walks you through everything clearly:

https://youtu.be/bmPVqZoCydk?si=sUfe37gcXJ_IWNeV

Thanks. Interesting video, but it doesn't tell me what I want to know. For example, he says he's going to tell us about the different machines, then he shows us some machines side-by side that are clearly different from each other without telling us what the difference is, how they work, whether they take paper money or coins, or card only, and whether the Easy card is plastic or not. Also, I was under the impression that you can't buy an empty Easy card; it has to have a ticket on it to begin with. That would explain why the recharge machines were idle.

At least he's partly up-to-date, but the first part shows a ten-ticket bundle that is not available any more, as far as I know. You see the problem I'm having finding good information on the Internet.

At the beginning of the video the machines with the blue overhead signs are where you buy the passes. You can load them with tickets there as well. If you run through all of the tickets you buy initially you can reload the card using the purple machines. You cannot buy passes at the purple machines. The Navigo Easy cards are plastic. Paper tickets have been discontinued.

He does say in the video that he's filming in 2024 so the ticket packages he's showing won't be accurate as of 2025. The Navigo Easy can be loaded with metro-RER tickets, bus-tram tickets or day passes. If you want a weekly pass you need to get a Navigo Decouverte card which is the one that requires you to put your photo on it.

Thanks, again. There are three machines in the shot. One of them has a red sign that says it sells Navigo Easy passes. The blue ones don't say that. And you say that the Easy passes are now all plastic. That's what I was hoping, but I would kind of like to know how you know that.

Source: I'm holding one in my hand right now. :) Honestly I had never heard of a cardboard one, the Ile de France Mobilites page on the Navigo Easy doesn't say anything about there being two types ( https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/tickets-fares/media/navigo-easy-travel-card ).

I just googled "Navigo cardboard" and I think I see now where the confusion lies. The Navigo Decouverte card comes with a cardboard sleeve or flap that you fill in your information on and affix your photo to. It is a different type of pass altogether than the Navigo Easy. https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/tickets-fares/media/navigo-decouverte-travel-card

What you said in your initial post is somewhat correct. The Navigo Easy can only be loaded with metro/RER tickets, bus/tram tickets, or day passes. If you want a longer pass like weekly or monthly you need the Navigo Decouverte.

Here is information about the available tickets and fares: https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/tickets-fares When you click though on the particular ticket or pass you're interested in scroll down a bit until you see "How to buy it" and it will show you which type of pass it can be loaded on.

you say that the Easy passes are now all plastic. That's what I was hoping, but I would kind of like to know how you know that.

It just is. The Navigo Easy is literally a plastic card, nothing else.

No offense, but if I simply took the word of everybody on the Internet, I'd be even more confused than I am now. "It just is" doesn't float my boat, I'm afraid. If you go to https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/aide-et-contacts/passe-navigo-easy/quels-titres-de-transports-puis-je-charger-sur-mon-passe-navigo-easy, it says at the bottom:

"Vous pouvez mettre au maximum 4 titres de type différents sur un même passe Navigo Easy rigide, et 2 titres de types différents sur un même passe Navigo Easy souple."

Of course, they may intend that for people who still have the now-defunct paper Easy, but I would expect some official indication somewhere that the paper one is a thing of the past, and I have not run across it.

I realize I’m just another somebody on the internet but I bought a plastic Navigo Easy at Gare du Nord 3 years ago already. It was the only available type of Navigo Easy. I didn’t see a non-plastic Navigo Easy being sold at that time nor when I stayed in Paris for 3 weeks during the Olympics last summer. I also never say someone is a paper Navigo Easy, and believe me, I used public transport extensively during the Olympics.

Cna't answer the mystery of the cardboard Easy -- I heard someone here whinging about it but have never seen one. But you can certainly buy the card blank. You can have the information clerk load it if you like -- I did it last year when you still got a carnet discount and so loaded with a carnet, but now you would specify since there is no discount. But you do not have to buy it already loaded.

I don't know how many tickets are left on ours -- we use them to patch between weekly and monthly passes. For example this spring we will have two partial weeks and a week before our monthly pass starts and so will use the Easy, then the ND, then the Easy and then the ND again

Thanks, everybody. Word of mouth is of great value when the official printed word is nonsense. That's what I posted here for. I embark for Paris with fresh enthusiasm, dreaming fondly of my shiny new plastic Navigo Easy bought from a machine after hours.