Please demystify Paris bus travel with Navigo Easy passes for me!

[Ogonek]

Hello seasoned Paris travellers, DH and I are great fans of Paris and have been many times - but not since travel tickets have moved on from the old 'Paris Visite' days. We're off there soon and I've got to grips with the simplest option (buy Navigo Easy passes and top up as needed).

However….we like travelling by bus as well as Métro and it appears that the system isn’t as uncomplicated as the Oyster card in that bus/tram and Métro tickets are two different things and both types need to be loaded.

Is that right? There are a million 'helpful' videos out there all saying slightly different things, including some people insisting you need two cards because you can’t mix and match, but surely that can’t be correct! Why they couldn’t just copy the Oystercard system I don’t know!

If anyone has happily sailed round Paris by bus and Métro using a Navigo Easy, please give me the lowdown, thanks!

I looked into this recently and it seemed like you could load both bus and metro tickets onto the same pass from the app. However I can't say for sure as I didn't end up using it - I had also read that you could use contactless bank cards, which turned out not to be the case on the bus we took, but thankfully the driver just waved us clueless tourists on anyway!

If you download the BonjourRATP app and select tickets you can then either buy tickets on your phone or load a Navigo Easy card with tickets. Each journey (upto 90 minutes in one direction) needs a "ticket", these are credits on your account rather than physical tickets. Yes, the bus tickets and metro tickets are different, with bus being cheaper. When you select buy ticket in the app you then see options for the Airport fare, the metro fare and the bus-tram ticket. There are also options to buy the reduced (child) fares. Each person travelling needs their own device or card on which their virtual ticket is stored, but you can use the App to charge more than one physical card. You then tap the card or the device on the purple pads at the entrance of the bus or the metro, you need to make sure that it has registered, as there are penalty fares for being caught without an active ticket. If you are traveling to Paris on the Eurostar you can buy the Navigo cards from the buffet car, they come loaded with 2 metro journeys. Its a bit more complicated if you are arriving by plane, as there is a separate fare and you can't have metro tickets and airport fares on the same card at the same time.

Thanks both. I’d heard the tip about buying from the Eurostar buffet and that’s my plan! We’ll be using physical cards and DH is very tech-averse so I won’t convince him to have anything to do with the app (though I discovered that I have actually got it downloaded to my phone) - I expect we’ll just top up at a machine as needed.

Two questions: presumably the system 'knows' which pre-loaded ticket - bus or Métro - to use?

I've read somewhere that you have to use upall your loaded tickets before buying more; you can’t top up while there are still some on the card - anyone know if this is right?

Is your DH determined to use physical cards? Do you have an iPhone? If so go to Wallet / + / Travel Card / France / Navigo.

Take a look now, it was VERY easy to do. I thought as simple as Oyster.

No need to download an app and you can look in advance to see if you’d be comfortable with it.

Yes definitely buy on the Eurostar to avoid queues!

As well as at the machine, you can top up the physical cards from the app by holding the card to your phone, also useful for checking what tickets you have left on it.

I'm fairly sure that when we were in Paris last year we were able to add more tickets to our passes before we had used all the ones we had, we would plan ahead and make sure we had enough tickets on each of our passes for the next few trips. We had both bus and metro tickets on our passes and the system automatically takes the right one for the mode of transport you are using.

We were in Paris last week and added more tickets (including to physical Navigo card) before we'd used up the previous ones, no issue at all.

One advantage of topping up the cards with the app is that the machines are in train stations, so if you suddenly want to get a bus (as we did) and you are not near a station then it is easy to add the ticket using the app. I personally wouldn't want to use my phone at the metro turnstiles because of concerns around pickpockets, I don't use apple pay for the underground for the same reason.

That’s good to know, thank you!

ETA - and thanks @Orchidgrower

I live here, and I use a physical card. I once lost my tickets on my phone, and don’t trust them. That said, I know people with iPhones who successfully add the tickets directly onto the phone via the wallet. The app is useful for checking your balance and adding more tickets though, and you can definitely add more tickets before you use up the first batch purchased. You can do this for different cards, too.

Remember that you cannot swap between the metro and bus on the same ticket; it would be two separate tickets.

Brilliant, thanks I am going to Paris on Thursday and was wondering about this now you dang buy carnets at the little booth in Gare du Nord.
Another tip if you don’t mind walking is avoid metro station at G du N and walk down to Magenta where the queues are far less crowded.