Paris metro tickets harder to get?

Hi Jim... We just returned from being in France for a month and a half.. several weeks in Paris. We had no trouble buying carnets at all. We usually stay off the Rue Cler and bought carnets from a man or woman at the Ecolie Militaire metro station. No problem. We also bought them at other metro stops. I do not know if this is true everywnere, but we had no problem at all.

Jim,

Based on Rick's podcasts (as well as Arthur Frommer's), I haven't heard anything problematic relating to obtaining the tickets.

One thing to mention: French websites (even the government ones) don't always have perfect mirror-image information between English and the French version. If the French version says you can buy the tickets at the smoke shops, then I'd go with that as current info.

Jim,

Based on Rick's podcasts (as well as Arthur Frommer's), I haven't heard anything problematic relating to obtaining the tickets.

One thing to mention: French websites (even the government ones) don't always have perfect mirror-image information between English and the French version. If the French version says you can buy the tickets at the smoke shops, then I'd go with that as current info.

Shawn - I have Rick's 2009 Paris guide. My impression is that it may not be current on this topic, which is why I am asking.

What seems to be occurring is that the RATP is reducing the number of ticket selling humans, and is replacing them by ticket dispensing machines. However, those machines don't talk to US banks, so we can't use our credit cards in them.

The fact that you can buy tickets at a tabac is on the RATP website, but in French only! Being a non-smoker, I forgot about tabacs as a resource.

On two trips to Paris this fall, I did not have a problem with ticket windows being closed and being forced to use machines. That being said, I also did not try to just one individual ticket each time I needed to ride the metro. If you buy a carnet of 10 tickets, you should only have a to find an open ticket booth every few days.

Also, you can buy a preloaded card with a smart chip (like a prepaid debit card) to use in the machines and other places your American bank cards won't work.

In October, we rode the Metro a lot. Here is our experience:

We did have some problems finding open ticket booths, especially on the week end. The machines took only coins, so we carried change for that purpose. As stated in other posts, the machines do not take US cards.

Have change and all should be well.

hi jim,
my wife, son and i are in paris as i type. you can still buy carnets from human beings, as well as from machines. but if you're planning on using the metro a lot, my advice is forego the carnets and to buy the carte NAVIGO découverte. it costs €5 for the card, and a week's worth of metro and bus riding is €16,80 (€55,10 for the month). NB there are two types of carte navigo: the one i mention above, available to all folks, and the regular carte navigo which is free but only available to franciliens.
have fun!!!

Mikey - thanks. That sounds good. Is there any disadvantage to buying the Navigo mid-week? We'll be arriving on a Thursday and departing on Tuesday.

Jim, the Carte Orange Hebdomadaire which you load on a passe Navigo Decouverte card will NOT work for you. It is good for Monday-Sunday, not any seven-day period, and it is not sold on Thursdays. If you buy it Friday-Sunday, it won't be valid until Monday.

For a page listing all your transportation pass and ticket choices with links to detailed explanations of each one, go here.

If you have Euros, you can purchase the metro tickets from the machine with no problem; however, it seems that the machine only took Euro coins -- not paper.

We arrived in Paris yesterday by train at Gare de Nord. We attempted to buy the one week pass (Carte Orange) and Navigo card (we arrived on Monday so it made sense). The man at the train station told us we had to buy the Paris Visite pass instead. It was much more expensive, so I used some tickets I had left in a previously purchased carnet and headed for the apartment we are renting. We had someone meeting us and I didn't want to keep her waiting. Later we went to our "local" metro stop and was told that we could buy the Navigo and one week Carte Orange, we just had to go to a larger station for it. We were able to buy a carnet from the machine with cash (paper) and I saw someone at the ticket window buying one with a credit card.

Thanks to all.

I guess Navigo won't work due to our schedule, but it seems there are plenty of ticket booths still around for us to buy a couple of carnets. And that will suit us just fine.

As someone else mentioned, the one week Navigo pass is only good from Monday to Sunday and I'm sorry to say the booth attendants will sell you a week's pass on a Wednesday or Thursday and not tell you that. We thought it was for a week and couldn't figure out why it stopped working after only a few days.

Even though we paid for a week and didn't get one, the convenience of zipping through the metro system without having to wait in line to buy individual tickets is worth it. Although a little more honesty from the original ticket seller would have been nice. We ended up buying a second week (where we won't be there for the full week either) just for the convenience.

We didn't realize you couldn't use a US credit card in the machine and after several tries just went with cash to extend the card another week. Should have read these posts more carefully first!

Jim, I just re-read the link I gave you in my previous post and it looks like I gave you incorrect information about the Carte Orange. The old PAPER Carte Orange was not sold on Thursdays, but it looks like you can load the electronic version on a passe Navigo Decouverte card on Thursdays. So with your Thursday arrival, you could use a Carte Orange for Thursday-Sunday. However, since the card costs €5, you may do just as well buying carnets and sharing the tickets, especially if you enjoy walking and plan to do some exploring on foot. And for any day that you know you will take lots of rides you could buy one-day Mobilis passes and save the tickets from your carnets for days when you will take limited rides.