Train stamp system Paris to verailes

[IsthataNo]

Hello can anyone explain it to me please, apparntly there are inspectors who pick on tourists demanding large amounts if we don't stamp in the correct way ?

Versailles !

On the train? I did that journey and just bought a ticket from the machine, don't remember any stamping or inspectors, but obviously they won't be on every train.

I suppose the best thing to do is read the train company website so you're sure about you need to do.

We had a train ticket and just tapped it in and out, last week. I’ve had the massive fine threat in Vienna when we legitimately did not get our tickets stamped, but not in Paris. The Vienna fine was waived when we appealed it. They were definitely targeting tourists going to the airport, because they totally ignored groups teenagers blatantly flouting the rules.

@Chemenger thanks yea it was something about tapping it in and out.

@Bjorkdidit it wasn't inspectors on the train but in the station itself

There are barriers that let you through when you tap your ticket to let you on and off the platform. Unless you jump the barrier or squeeze through on someone else’s ticket deliberately you can’t go wrong. It’s not like in other places where you need to remember to validate your ticket in a machine before you board.

We had navigo cards and just tap in and out of the station- no problem at all. iirc there are electronic gates out of Versailles station so you can’t really do it incorrectly as it’s just a tap out with your card, the stations in city centre Paris also all have tap in tap out gates

Thanks maybe this is new then re can't go wrong !

There are no paper tickets to be stamped. You’ll have your Navigo card/ticket; just make sure you tap in and out when entering and exiting the station.

The inspectors are also present at CDG and Orly stations, often catching out people travelling on expired Navigos or who haven’t tapped in (jumping over the turnstiles is a national pastime here).

Ah, I didn't go from CDG but some station on the RER line (DP was working in Paris for a few days so I tagged along and spent a day just wandering around the city and a day at Versailles). The hotel was in the city but not near CDG.

Barriered stations are fairly ubiquitous on the UK trains I use most so it always surprises me if I don't need to go through one. And obviously I wouldn't ever jump one, not that I probably could anyway.

When I went to Versailles, the confusing part was that it was on a circle section of line so all trains went to Versailles but from one platform it took about 20 minutes? But the other way over an hour, which wouldn't have been the end of the world but best avoided seeing as I had a time slot on my ticket to get in.

@Oriunda our only train journey will be from Paris to versolle so how do we buy a ticket ?

@Bjorkdidit that's good to know thanks !

We went from the Musee D’Orsay station to Versailles. There were ticket machines at the entrance.

We actually got our tickets as part of a guided tour, if you’re nervous it might be worth doing that, we also skipped the (very long) queue at Versailles. The tour guide gave out the train tickets and explained the system at the station. She pointed out a lot that we might not have seen in the palace as well.

At whatever station you're travelling from? There will be ticket machines. Or, if you have iphones, directly via your travel wallet. It's a flat fare now of €2.50 everywhere within the idf region.

You’re probably best downloading the navigo app and loading your virtual card with enough for 2 journeys (it’s a flat fare per journey of I think €2.50 so each way will cost you one journey, you can change trains within an hour so if you need to catch a metro then RER train it counts as one journey).
You can buy physical navigo cards and top them up at the station but you have to pay for the cards (again I think €2.50 each)

For a luddite such a myself, the best way is with a Passe Navigo, which is more or less the equivalent to a London Oyster card. You can buy one from a ticket machine anywhere, and then you just place it on a special space on the ticket machine, select how many journeys you want to load (the machines speak English), pay et voila!

If you're travelling by Eurostar they sell them in the bar, pre loaded with 2 journeys.

More up to date folk would use the RATP Bonjour app I believe and just tap with their phones, but that's all a bit uncomfortably modern for me.

Tapping in and out with your payment card is still a bit uncomfortably modern for Paris though.

I still miss the old carnets of paper tickets, which DID have to be stamped, which is maybe where you're getting your unstamped ticket tales from.

I had a fail last year in trying to buy ticket via the machines in Paris, from Gar du Nord to the Charles airport. It seemed like only way to buy a ticket was using anApp. You'd use the machine to load the ticket onto your phone after installing the App. My App seemed to install fine. I was charged and the ticket Never appeared on my app. I had to resort to waiting in the Q to get a human to sell me a physical ticket that would get me thru the barriers at Gar du Nord. My french is poor & only by waiting in the 25 minute Q did I find people (guard and the ticket selling staff) with enough English to talk to who could try to help (the staff were all very nice). They all kept doing to my phone what I did to try to see the e-ticket that I could show I had been charged for and yet ticket never appeared on my App account. I never figured out how to get a refund, too.

Electric bike hire was easy enough in Paris but as for the trains... Nightmare !!!

So, the Bonjour RATP app can be used to both buy and store virtual tickets, and you can also use it to buy new tickets and load them via your phone onto a physical Navigo Easy card (the card most tourists buy). The physical card costs €3; the price will be added onto your fare the first time you use it; you then reload the ticket either at the machines, the manned ticket counters at larger stations, or via the app on your phone.

Or, as I said above, if you have iphones, you just buy tickets via the wallet/travel card section and tap in.