Paris Metro Tickets

[Thethingswedoforlove]

We are going to Paris for 3 nights/ 4 days next week (wb 19/5). Can anyone help me with the best way to pay for travel around Paris. I have searched mumsnet and the web more generally but I am flummoxed. I don’t know if I need a Navigo card or an app or if I buy carnet of tickets directly to my Apple wallet. There are four of us. All adults. All with Apple phones. Can anyone help me?

Is tapping the same as validating ? Or do you have to do something additional as well?

Agree, couldn’t work it out before getting there tbh. We were helped at Charles de Gaulle by a (slightly scary) staff member!
London public transport is so much easier to figure out!

Yes same thing, just tap in and out of each station- there are barriers

This! And l say that as someone UK born, but brought up in Paris due to dad’s job. I speak fluent French but it is overly complex. They really need to look at London and Singapore (the latter all step free, but that is another issue) as good examples of practicality.

Thank you. This has confused me a bit. So we can’t just buy a ticket on the app add it to the Apple wallet and use it to travel? There are other things we need to do too?

Go into the Apple wallet and click the + sign and then Travel card - scroll down until you find France and Navigo. You can buy single bus or metro tickets, or a carnet of 10. There is also the option to buy a ticket from the airport to central Paris, which is 13 Euro. When we went a couple of years ago, we went to the ticket office window in Gard du Nord and bought Navigo Easy cards - these can be topped up the same way as an Oyster card and don’t need a photo, so you can use this option if the phone version of the card doesn’t work.

Wow. Thank you!

@Thethingswedoforlove DD goes to Paris quite often and we did what she does. Bought Navigo tickets at machines at the Gare du Nord. We got an actual plastic ticket card with trips on it. Worked like a bank card/oyster with no issues at all. Don’t bother with an app etc and you don’t need the phone. Go old school and get the plastic card. The barriers work when you tap the card as at home. It’s easy.

A couple of years ago was a different story. As l mentioned up thread, ticket office windows have gone! Or rather they are still there but don’t sell tickets. You need to purchase the card and load trips from the ticket machine.

It’s all changed in the last year

this is a very helpful thread

No more paper carnets of 10 much to my DM horror who went last month and has been visiting Paris for the last 60 years

Ddad got stuck in a turnstile with his luggage but they did say there are no longer any turnstiles to get out of metro stations. Might not be for all of them but it was for the ones they used

you need as PP to buy a plastic Navigo card or / and download the app before you go just in case

one of my DC is going next month so I’ve downloaded the app mention by PP just to check it out. It’s fairly self explanatory apart from being all in French. Luckily my basic French got me through it.

I’ll be advising my DC to buy a navigo card at Gare du Nord and top up with 10 single metro trips and to add a single metro trip on the app just in case.

Seems you can top up your Navigo card via your phone by holding the card over the phone and the phone tops it up.

Obviously you need to have downloaded the app to top up your Navigo card via your phone

Like this

You don’t need to download an app. Just use your Apple wallet, click on the plus sign, then travelcard then Navigo. As long as you have a card in your wallet that works abroad, that’s all you need to buy a single ticket.

We tapped in with our phones, but you just push out through a turnstile (no tap out needed on the Metro).

Oh, that looks great @ObstreperousCushion, thank you.

Thanks @StarTwirl - we’re off to Paris this week and I’ve just downloaded metro
tickets onto our Navigo Easy cards using the app - hadn’t realised you could do that. Brilliant!!

@ObstreperousCushion

Thanks for that. I tried it out and it works

So simple

No app or card even required

@stringbean
You’re welcome
I’m glad it actually works and you’ve proved it does which is a great help

Well you can still buy the usual paper tickets of old. Possibly just not in the carnet of 10 that you could for decades. But they still exist

Only just. If things go to plan, paper tickets are due to be phased out completely by the end of 2025.

We didn’t find any machines at all selling them and the ticket offices have all but closed

you can still use them if you have them though

You can easily still buy them at Gare du Nord when you arrive on the Eurostar
But at least this thread has pointed out all options once that’s no longer the case

If your ticket or Navigo card doesn't work for some reason, and the station is unmanned, you just do what we all do and either jump over, or crawl under, depending on your level of fitness!

I use the IDF Mobilités app, but have a physical ticket (I live here so use the Liberté Plus PAYG card). The physical Navigo ticket is €2 on top of your actual tickets, and can then be topped up. Or use the app to buy and store tickets.

A flat fee of €2.50 on metro/RER came in this January, so definitely check how many journeys per day you'll be making.

I have Android, BTW. Sounds like Apple is much easier.

Many stations are still tap out, especially if you're transferring between metro and RER. Some stations have automatic barriers with no ticket needed, but some require your ticket.

Beware the ticket agents at CDG airport; they will scan every Navigo ticket from Paris before you pass through barriers, to ensure no one's cheated.

Went at Easter. You can certainly still buy paper tickets (2.50euro single trip) but only from certain machines. You have to scroll through the options but we did this and just bought 10 at a time. We travelled with two teenagers. Put the paper (cardboard) ticket through the barrier, then keep hold of it. At the other end of your journey you do not need it though (different to London etc)

The navigo cards are available at GduN. It’s an easy option.