Paris Metro tickets - how does it work these days?

[PuppyMonkey]

Pretty sure this has been done recently, but the only threads I can find on 'Search' are from 2008, so not particularly helpful...

Planning a trip with the family to Paris in August and wondering what happens on the Metro. I've heard about the Navigo app thing, but how does that work with a family - we all have to have the app?

I assume you can still go and buy the tickets from the machines, would that be easier for us? Is there a family ticket thing? There's two adults and a 15 year old going.

Any help would be great (plus any tips on good things to do in Paris over 5 days). Thanks ever so.

Thanks so much all, I’ll get the Navigo card from a tourist office I think - @Oriunda you’ve given me some great tips there. I’ve been to Paris before several times but not fit many years and I’m going with my DDs who have never been.

We’re actually going Mon-Fri so I think the weekend young person pass thing won’t work but no matter, just want to do the metro easily. I’ve been on the RATP web but it was all a bit baffling. Will have another look.

Bear in mind that some museums will offer combined entry passes with another museum. Eg you can buy a combined ticket for the Rodin museum (really worth a visit and set in beautiful gardens) and Musee d'Orsay (also really worth a visit, esp if you like impressionist paintings) which works out cheaper than buying tickets separately. Would also recommend the Montparnasse tower on a clear day if you want a fabulous view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in it.

Ooh thanks @stringbean Montparnasse is definitely on the list!

Thanks for asking this OP, I'm also going to Paris in august!
I never learnt French, is it awful to ask for the card in English at a ticket office and will they reply?! Or should I learn the phrase and hope they don't speak back?!

If you're going from Monday to Friday and will use more than one carnet each, or travel outside Paris proper to Versailles or Disneyland for example, it's worth getting the Navigo semaine which costs €22.80. You need to buy a Navigo découverte card for €5 each and have a passport photo to stick on it. You can keep the Navigo découverte card and recharge it with a Navigo jour, semaine or mois subscription when you're in Paris again.

The Navigo semaine will also allow you to travel to and from the airport on the RER B if that's a consideration.

Hi @badalmond - yes we want to hit yo Versailles as I’ve never been. Do you get the Navigo semaine from a normal ticket office? And do you have to bring a photo with you?

Is it just me, it’s all quite complicated isn’t it?

We had the Navigo Easy cards (we were there for a long weekend) and just bought separate return tickets to Versailles - from one of the ticket offices. It's probably the most straightforward thing to do, if you don't want to do photos for a weekly Navigo pass. We arrived into Gard du Nord for our trip to Paris, so didn't need to factor in any other RER trips to the airport, which wouldn't have been covered by the Navigo Easy.

Yes, it was definitely easier when you could just buy the carnet as paper tickets.

You do buy the Navigo découverte from a ticket office (guichet) and there are almost always photo machines in the stations. The price is steep: just increased to €8 from €5 a couple of years ago, so if you already have a photo bring it with you.

The Navigo easy is definitely the better option if you're just making short trips within Paris, the disadvantage is that you can't use it on the RER outside Paris proper so you would have to buy separate paper tickets for that. If you're going to the airport and back then it would cost over twenty euros to do that on the RER so it's worth getting the navigo découverte card.

Thanks again - it all makes me feel very thick but I think I’m getting there. Don’t do planes, will be coming in on Eurostar!

Gutted about the carnets being phased out. I was last there in March and used them then.

Thank you for this helpful thread. I'm going to Paris on Thursday for five days with my kids (at 10 and 14, they're considered adults in Metro terms) and like the OP I've been a few times as a younger woman but not for at least 15 years and never with kids.
Please come back after your trip, OP, and let us (well, me!) know how you got on (so that I can shamelessly steal ideas from you).

@Absofruitly I’m not actually going till early August, so I’ll be stealing ideas from you if you’re going on Thursday!

@PuppyMonkey 😁Okay, I will report back on how we got on with travelling around the city/what we did and saw after the 12th.

@Absofruitly any update or news on this?!? I am going through Paris tomorrow and although I still have some tickets from a carnet from last time I travelled, I wanted to get a couple of cards too, to spread the cost for my family of four (who could previously share a carnet, rather than needing one each...).

Hi there, sorry I forgot to update this thread. We had a wonderful 5 days in Paris in July and just used carnets/paper tickets to get around the Metro. I bought about 40 tickets in all over the course of the 5 days, so about 10 tickets each for the 4 of us, getting us out and back again from our exploring each day. I fully admit this is probably not the most cost-effective way of doing things, but it seemed the easiest at the time.
Happy to answer more questions if you have them.

At the Gare du Nord in June we couldn't find a window to buy the Navigo card as hoped, so we just bought a book of carnets from the machine, very straightforward. We got a top-up book when needed, at a not particularly large Metro so I wouldn't say that the carnet system has disappeared.

Yeah, we were able to buy the carnets at any and all Metro stations we went through, as and when needed. They all had machines that had an option to display in English, so dead easy.
Also, if you're getting there on the Eurostar, the buffet car on the train sells carnets of tickets so you can have them in your hand before you even arrive at the Gare du Nord.

This is very useful thanks for updating.
In terms of children. My three are 2, 7 and 10. So the ten year old will need tickets but i dont need anything for the younger two?
Silly question, but do they have the person-controlled barriers to let kids through rather than just automatic barriers?

Yeah, the 10-year-old will need a ticket. That's the cut-off age for free kids travel.
We didn't see many manned barriers at all, certainly not in the smaller stations, but then I suppose I wasn't really looking for them as my kids each had a ticket (they're 10 and 14). Hmm, hopefully someone else will be along to answer that one who's had to navigate Paris with younger kids.

No this is wrong. Your ten -year-old is an adult (!) so needs an adult ticket. Your 7 year old is tarif reduit so half fare. You could buy tarif reduit carnets when you could buy carnets, so based on these updates I would say you still can. Your two year old travels free. There are no manned gates that I've ever seen. I once got my (big) rucksack caught when the gates closed behind me when I was pushing a pushchair through, so after that I always went through first so dp could set me free with his ticket if it happened again!!! (It didn't, but don't hang around once your ticket has opened the gate!).

This was not at all the update that I was expecting, but I am very pleased the carnets are still available. If we were staying in Paris obviously a Navigo card would be the way to go, but given that we're just passing through I'm going to get another carnet to share between us and it will push the problem down the road a bit!!!

Pleased to be the bearer of good news. 😁When the announcement came over the tannoy on the Eurostar saying Metro tickets were available at the buffet car, I breathed a sigh of relief. Paper tickets are definitely still a thing! Or they were in early July anyway.

That's brilliant . Is the area around the terminal safe enough to walk around as a tourist ? I seem to remember in years past it wasn't? We have a 20-30 min walk to our hotel from there, or the same changing lines twice . Trying to work out which will be the easiest - well walking would I think?

Our apartment was two Metro lines away from the Gare du Nord (not that far, like 3 stops and then 4 stops, but a change was involved) but we did that rather than walk in the heat with our bags. We did pop out of the station for a minute to get our bearings and there were a lot of shifty-looking guys selling cigarettes unofficially from their jackets, which I only noticed around Gare du Nord and nowhere else in Paris, so I'm guessing that means the area around the station is a bit dodgy, yes.

Thanks for the updates everyone, I read a blog yesterday pointing out you could buy the Metro tickets on board Eurostar - fantastic news! And I’ve worked out the Metro route to our hotel so we’re good to go next Monday!