Carte Orange vs. Paris Visite?

For the Carte Orange just trim any photo of yourself to 1" X 1" ( so that it becomes a head-shot) and that will do. But are you sure that just buying a couple of 10-ticket carnets would not be more economical?

The Paris Visite pass is overpriced. A Carte Orange is your best pass choice for your first week (Monday-Sunday). You will have to buy a passe Navigo Decouverte rechargeable card (€5) onto which you will load the Carte Orange. For your second week (Monday-Thursday) you may do better by buying ten-ticket carnets as needed and sharing the tickets, especially if you plan to walk a lot and take limited rides.

For a list of all your ticket and pass options with links to detailed explanations of each one, go here.

Thanks for the information. I'm afraid that with this trip being in the winter, we will be forced by weather to take the metro or buses more. Our last trip we walked ALOT. I'm sure the carnets will be our best best for the 3 of us after the first week.

Hi Andrea: I would go with the carnet for the 2nd week & the Carte Orange for you first week. If you go for the Carte Orange you cannot get a photo taken at the station - I did that at home before I went, Keep in mind that Paris is a wonderful walking city. I don't know where you're staying or what you plan on seeing, but sometimes to go 2 or 3 metro stops is only about a 5-10 min walk. It is a very compact city. Lastly make sure you get the actual card that you stick your picture onto for the Carte (no one was in the booth when I purchased the weekly ticket from the machine). Then, later in the week I got stopped by the Metro police who threatened a fine. Luckily in my broken french I explained what happened & they didn't levy one.

Gail - That was what I was thinking, the Carte Orange for the first week and then a carnet (or however many we end up needing for 3 people) for the remaining days. I love to walk in Paris, but I am trying to be realistic about the weather conditions. Plus, this trip I am hoping to get to areas that were too far for me the last time I went. At that time we stayed fairly close to the river. I wonder if we can just go to one of those photo booths in the mall here and each take our picture and cut it down. Has anyone tried that?

Hi Andrea

We just returned from a week in Paris last month--used the Carte Orange and really got our money's worth. We used the photo booths at the Metro station but really just bring a photo and trim it. There is a sticky tape on the card that you just stick it to. We saw people lined up for tickets and carnets and we just scanned through all the lines. I have used carnets in the past but this worked really well.

Also it rained a lot when we were there so we did use public transportation more than we would have in the summer. But we still walked a lot--just not in a downpour.