Paris Navigo warning

Gee, and I thought everybody knew you had to have a 1" by 1 1/4" photo attached to your Navigo card. It is mentioned every single time the subject comes up on this forum, as well as clearly shown on the RATP website.

Every discussion around here has talked about putting the photo, and often what type if photo is good enough.

If there's a space for a photo why wouldn't you put one in?

Sorry you fell foul of the law but no way your failure to do what was required constitutes a scam.

This is a good reminder, but please reword the title of your post to remove the word "scam".

...as well as clearly shown on the RATP website.

Sam, for my own future reference for next Paris trip, could you post where that is on the site? I'm not seeing it although I do know you're supposed to attach a pix so no, not a scam!

This is what I'm looking at and it's not here:

https://www.ratp.fr/en/titres-et-tarifs/navigo-monthly-and-weekly-travel-passes

Yes, I guess you do have to click through to find this.
https://www.jegeremacartenavigo.fr/faq/article/29

It was a little clearer when i bought mine a few years ago, where they showed images of the pass with a generic ID photo attached. Bought at the CDG train station ticket counter with our photos in hand.

Thanks, Sam.
LOL, you don't want to know how long it took me to test a click-through to that page on my own!

The OP should use the guidebook feedback form if the information was missing from the Rick Steves guidebook.
https://www.ricksteves.com/forms/guidebook-feedback-form

Looking at my 2012 Paris guidebook it states:
"You pay a one time 5 EUR fee for the Navigo card itself (which also requires a postage stamp-size photo of yourself..."

But then I learned about the Navigo Decouverte from following this forum, so that is how I really knew about the photo requirement.

I just Googled "Paris Navigo" and the top result was this.

A couple of paragraphs down, under "How to Buy Navigo Pass", it states:
**

You’ll need a smaller than passport size photo to be used on the pass (exact Navigo Decouverte photo size is 3cm tall by 2.5cm wide), plus a pen to write your name. There’s nearly always a photo booth nearby ticket windows at major stations, costing 5€ for a set of four pictures, so be sure to get your photo taken before going to the ticket window where they’ll likely have scissors handy for trimming your freshly minted photo on the pass.

**

The card itself also states "collez ici votre photo d'identité," i.e. "paste your ID photo here," in the spot where your photo is supposed to go; it's not just an ambiguous blank white space. I know not everyone speaks French, but Google Translate will do a sufficient job with that sentence, and I think it is reasonable to assume that you should follow the instructions actually printed on the card.

The inside of the card also has more detailed notes inside (I'm looking at it now): "La carte à puce Navigo Découverte est strictement personnelle et n'est valable qu'associée à la présente carte nominative transport, portant votre nom, prénom, photo [my emphasis] et le même numéro," i.e. "The Navigo Découverte smart card is strictly personal and valid only in conjunction with this personal transport card, bearing your surname, first name, photo and the same number."

I certainly don't think that everyone will read that inside text, but if it's a scam it's not a particularly well-designed one given the instructions all around!

It sounds like you had a very unpleasant experience. I'm sorry for your trouble.

I, like the others, react to your title calling this a scam. It was at its very worst, a miscommunication. I certainly knew I needed pictures and that they didn't need to be passport sized (a photocopy of drivers license will do) and I knew that because of this forum and watching a few you tube videos.

Sometimes, in the course of travels, we make mistakes. I made one on a recent trip to London that ended up costing me 25 pounds (ouch!). Is wasn't a scam for me, it was me not paying enough attention to details. I didn't double check the direction I purchased a ticket for and it was the wrong direction! Instead of my cheap advance ticket purchase, I was now purchasing full price on the spot.
I wasn't thrilled about wasting money, but I also knew that I was the one responsible for not checking through the details carefully.

In my family, we have a special designation for such errors. We call them "stupid fees." Whenever we make a mistake that ends up costing us money, we try to take it with the best humor we can and assign it to the budget category of "stupid fees." I have paid more than my share of these over the years, but I do try to minimize them.:}

This is definitely not a scam, but when we travel we sometimes make mistakes. The first time we used our Navigo cards many years ago I had also failed to attach the photos we brought. Thankfully we had a compassionate enforcement officer stop us. He instructed us to attach our photos right away. If we had been fined I would have chalked it up to being the price of not doing things correctly. I would not expect the enforcement people in France to speak any English, so "do not speak much English" is a bonus.

The photo is needed to quickly see if someone is trying to use a card that belongs to another person. Or, to keep two people from trying to cheat the system and use the same card - 1st part of the week, 2nd part of the week.

If you’re still in Europe, also be sure to validate your train tickets before stepping onto the train- an even bigger fine!

Hopefully the next edition of the Paris guidebook will include this warning.

Hopefully future travellers will undertake a bit of basic homework and not display a sense of entitlement and accuse innocent public servants of being involved in a scam and insist that their command of the English language should be better suited to your requirements. If their English was not good enough why didn't you converse in French, surely that would have made the interaction a lot smoother and easier to understand?

I'm pretty sure the photo detail has been covered in Rick's guidebooks at least since my first trip to France in 1994.

RS Paris 2019 says on page 21, "Passe Navigo: This chip-embedded card costs a one-time €5 fee (plus another €5 for the required photo; photo booths are in major Métro stations)."

RS Pocket Paris, page 202 says "To save money, buy a carnet of 10 tickets for €14.10. Or you could consider the one-day Mobilis pass (€7) or the weekly Passe Navigo, a chip-embedded card (€21.25 plus €5 first-time fee and €5 for ID photo)."

I've edited the title of this thread to remove "scam" from the title.

Thank you webmaster. Since this is a first time poster, it could just be a one-time drive by letting off steam. By changing the title, the post becomes useful rather than contentious.

I've edited the title of this thread to remove "scam" from the title

Thanks. Looks like you did a little cleaning up as well.

I hope Kyle will become a regular member, even though he started out on the wrong foot.

Now we all have to go back and edit our own posts to eliminate the "scam" references.