Paris Metro Tickets Validity Period

NOT QUITE sure, but they seem to live forever..i sometimes find old ones here and there in the house and they work just fine...it's the new ones that occassionally create problems..but the ticket window person will let you thru if she/he sees that it hasn't been used..

This year we used the leftover tickets from last year, so at least a year.

While we're on the subject of Metro passes...we had some confusion last week when we bought our weekly pass. Everything I've read said that you needed a small picture for the new rechargeable card since the Carte Orange is now a thing of the past. When we tried to explain what we needed at a Metro window, we were told that we did not need a picture. Our friends, at another Metro station, we're given a little folder with their week pass and were told that a picture was optional, but not needed.Our pass was for zones 1-2.When we tried to buy RER tickets to get back to CDG, no ticket windows were open and a person at an information desk sent us upstairs to another closed window (there was no machine at this station). Since we had gotten into the RER station with our zones 1-2 pass, we had no choice but to just get on the RER to the airport to catch our plane without being able to pay an additional 8 EUR that we thought we should have. Anyone know what's going on here?This was our 4th trip to Paris and these were new new issues that we encountered. Oh...and one other thing. My husband's weekly pass got eaten by a machine! So luckily we were at a station with an attendant right beside the machine. I blocked the machine from other people while my husband tried to explain the problem. The attendant then unlocked the machine and dug out the pass (like a paper jam in a copier). We saw this happen to another girl, too, but with no one around to help her.

Even thought we brought photos, they didn't give us any option to use them. There was no longer a Carte Orange, we were told, but we didn't need the rechargeable card either. (We were confused!...this didn't go along with anything we read ahead of time!) We ended up getting a 1 week pass for about 16 EUR, which looked just like a regular Metro ticket, except that it was endlessly reuseable for a week. We were in Paris from Sept 7-20.

Sue,

The information you quoted is out of date. A single ticket now costs €1.60 and a carnet of ten tickets costs €11.40. The RATP is phasing out the old paper Carte Orange in favor of a plastic rechargeable card. The passe Navigo is for residents and the passe Navigo Decouverte is for visitors. The card costs €5 and you can load a Carte Orange hebdomadaire (weekly pass good Monday-Sunday) on it. A small headshot photo (about 1" x 1") is required.

It sounds like Terry managed to find a station that is still selling the old paper Carte Orange. A photo is required to be attached to a special sleeve for the paper CO. Terry was lucky that the Metro police didn't ask to see the proper documentation. He would have been fined on the spot.

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

You can get into a RER station with a 1-2 zone pass as I think since the RER makes stops within those zones you could take the RER,, like from Luxebourg to St Michel if you wanted to. I may be wrong,, but I can't see there would be any problem doing that, does anyone know for sure ( Jona?)

We have always used the Carte Orange on previous trips, with the picture and all. This was NOT the same thing. There are posters in all the stations that the Carte Orange is no longer available. Our friends at the Ecole Militaire station got the same 1 week ticket that looked exactly like a Metro pass that we did at the Colonel Fabien station. We TRIED to buy the rechargeable card but were told we could not,and that we could have this 1 week pass. Go figure. There was nothing on the Paris Metro site that said anything about what was actually available, but both we and our friends got the same thing in two different places. We found it puzzling and odd that they are selling a product not as described on their own online information.

It is part of an ongoing change with how RATP and SNCF (RER) are conducting ticket purchases. There is a division of labor going on that to be honest confuses me just as much. The automated machines if they do not accept cash (there are some now that will actually accept Euro notes) then it will not accept any debit/credit card that does not have the "magic" chip. Thus - most Americans would have to have 16 Euros in change - unheard of. Then on the flip side you have a station manned but can only give information - cannot accept cash - or cannot accept cards etc.

I am hoping that there will be a bit of logic to show up soon - however - it is usually a bit slow.

My suggestion - carry the coins.

Jona, we actually had a big pocketful of coins for the machines and no where to put them. I guess we got to save over 16 EUR (and were sweating out getting caught the whole time.) I'm not clear on why our zones 1-2 Metro passes got us into the RER station in the first place.

Will be going to Paris in 2 weeks so I'd like to know if I DO need a photo for the Carte Orange?

Is the weekly pass/Carte Orange the best way to get around? or should I get carnets?

We'll be there 7 days.

This is info from: http://www.paristriptips.com/transportation/using-the-paris-metro-and-rer/

"The cost of a metro ticket is about 1.40 €. If you plan on using the metro multiple times, it is more economical to buy a “carnet”, which costs 10.90€ for travel within the confines of Paris itself. If you go to the suburbs the ticket will be a little more.

Another option is to buy a “carte orange hebdomadaire” which is a metro pass valid for one week, from Monday – Sunday. This pass allows unlimited travel on the metro, RER and bus in the zones that you purchase (zones 1 and 2 will cover everything you will need). This includes the funiculaire of Montmartre. Be sure to bring a passport size photo with you, which you must attach to the pass. There are photo booths in some metro stations as well. Hold onto the pass and the ticket, as you only get one ticket that you re-use all week. The carte orange costs about 16€ for central Paris. NOTE: THE CARTE ORANGE IS SOON TO BE REPLACED BY THE NAVIGO CARD, WHICH IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO RESIDENTS OF PARIS.

There is also a “Paris Visite” pass which is valid for 1, 2, 3 or 5 days. You can buy this at any metro station, but be sure to write your name and the ticket number on the card. You buy this for the zone you will need, and the more zones you need the more expensive it is. Zones 1-3 should be enough for you, although Versailles is in zone 4. Prices range from 8.50€ for one day in zones 1-3 to 46.60€ for five days zones 1-5."

Has anyone heard of the 'NAVIGO CARD' and when its going to take effect?

Thanks again.

Okay, Terry. You were there and you know the old system very well so I defer to you. However, I know a man who lives in Paris who reports that some stations are still selling the old CO. And I've read reports from people who have bought the passe Navigo Decouverte. A weekly pass that doesn't require a photo is something I've never heard of. As you say, "Go figure."

And we got to save 5 EUR each by not having to buy the rechargeable new card, so at least their state of confusion worked to our advantage. But the whole time I was worried about Metro police just because someone who didn't know what they were doing probably sold us the wrong product, and we'd still be in trouble (I doubt that our limited French could explain our way out of much.)However, we did try repeatedly, to 2 Metro attendants, to buy the rechargeable card while showing them our pictures and were flatly refused.