Paris Pratique I: Getting around and les transports en commun

[updated July 3, 2012]

The Paris public transportation system is efficient and easy to navigate. Tickets and passes are valid for travel on the métro, bus, tram and RER. If you are staying in Paris for a week or longer, the easiest way to get around is to purchase an unlimited pass, called the Passe Navigo Découverte. The weekly passes are valid Monday to Sunday. To avoid lines, you can purchase or recharge your pass the Friday before. Monthly passes are valid for the calendar month and can be purchased beginning the 20^th of the month before.

Paris Visite offers several tourist options which include unlimited travel for 1, 2, 3, or 5 days, within the selected zones as well as line-jumping privileges at many Paris museums and attractions. Unless you are planning on visiting two or more major museums per day, it’s usually not worth the extra expense. The city center is small enough that if you purchase a book of ten tickets, called a carnet, you’ll be fine for very short stays.

 

Acquiring, charging and using your Pass Navigo Découverte

You’ll need a small photo of yourself for the pass. You can take a photo in a photomaton, photo booth, (choose 'miniphoto' if you have a choice, otherwise the 4 photo option) located in some stations. The cost is 5€, payable with a bill or coins. You can also
cut a small headshot of yourself out of a larger photo. The headshot should measure approximately 1½” high and 1” wide (you can trim to fit). In a pinch, a photocopy of your passport photo will do.  

If you have a credit card, you can purchase both the Pass Navigo Découverte for 5€ and charge it for one week or a month at one of the information booths inside major métro stations. 

If you only have cash, you must first purchase your Pass Navigo Découverte at the automated kiosk, pick up a coupon and then retrieve it back at the information booth. After you get the plastic card, then you have to take it back to the machine to charge it.

To begin at a kiosk, touch the screen for English, then select Touch to buy tickets here, followed by Coupon Pass Navigo Découvertea This will give you a coupon which you then take to the Information window. 

At this point you will probably be weary of the entire process, but please remember to greet the agents at the window and ask politely for their help.

Pronunciation note: the soft ‘j’ or ‘g’ in French is pronounced ‘zhe’ like the ‘s’ sound in ‘pleasure’. It is the voiced counterpart to the ‘t’ sound in ‘nation’ or the French word for chair, ‘chaise’.

Bonjour, Madame (Monsieur). Pourriez-vous m’aider à acheter un Pass Navigo Découverte et me montrer comment le recharger ?

[pronounced : Poureeay-voo mehday ah ashtay un Pass Navigo Daycuverte  ay muh   montray komo luh resharzhay?

If the agent realizes you are a tourist, he or she may try to upsell you to a Paris Visite tourist pass and may even tell you that you’re not eligible for one. Just smile and say you’re not a tourist. You live in Paris now.

Je ne suis pas touriste. J’habite Paris maintenant.

            [pronounced: Zhe nuh swi pah touriste. Zhahbeet Pariy mentenan.]

The actual pass includes a smart card to which you affix a small photo of yourself and fill in your NOM (last, or family, name) and your PRENOM (first name). Then you plastifier the card by folding the sticky plastic over your photo and name and slipping the card into the hard plastic case. This is your Pass Navigo Découverte, but it is not valid until you charge it.

If you have just arrived in Paris or are in France for a short stay you probably do not have a smart credit card that can be used in the violet colored kiosks. You’ll want to look for a kiosk with the roll bar or touch screen and the orange band with the pictogram showing bank bills and coins. Apparently the kiosks are now set up to accept foreign credit and debit cards. You’ll choose Rechargement Pass Navigo, Zones 1-2, Hebdomadaire (Weekly) or Mensuel (Monthly). Place your card on the machine when requested and wait for it to be charged. 

Zones and Fares

The center of Paris is considered Zones 1-2. All métro stations and Paris buses are in Zones 1-2 (NB: Buses that go to the suburbs will enter Zone 3 and require additional fare). The RER system (Regional Express trains) serves the Parisian suburbs and crisscrosses Paris. If you take the RER within Paris, your Zones 1-2 ticket or pass is valid. If you leave central Paris, make sure you have the appropriate ticket, or you can be fined on the spot. Popular destinations outside Paris include Orly Airport (Zone 3) Versailles (Zone 4), Eurodisney or Charles-de-Gaulle Airport (both Zone 5).

RER A Paris Stops : Charles-de-Gaulle Etoile (Champs-Elysées) – Auber (Opéra and Grand Magasins) – Châtelet-Les Halles – Gare de Lyon – Nation.

RER B Paris Stops : Gare du Nord - Châtelet-Les Halles – St. Michel Notre Dame – Luxembourg – Port Royal – Denfert-Rochereau – Cité Universitaire.

Fare Information

Paris Passe Navigo     19.15€ (weekly); 62.90€ (monthly) for Zones 1-2.

Tickets                          1.70€ (single); 12.70€ (carnet of 10) for Zones 1-2

Paris Visite                   9.75€ (1 day); 15.85€ (2 days); 21.60€ (3); 31.15€ (5) 

Prices usually change on July 1^st each year. These prices are valid as of May 2012.

Hours of Operation – Heures d’Ouverture

The metro runs from around 5:30am – 1am Sunday through Thursday, and until 2am on Friday and Saturday. You can check online at www.ratp.fr for first and last trains at your station. Buses start about an hour later and finish an hour earlier. The night buses, or Noctiliens, begin around midnight and continue until the metro opens, around 5:30am. The night buses start from the center of Paris and go to the suburbs. Night bus numbers are preceded by “N”. If the driver is signaling that you should not get on the bus, he’s probably telling you that it’s not the right bus for you. To avoid being stranded in a distant suburb, politely tell the driver where you want to go before getting on the bus.  

 Je voudrais aller à ____.

[pronunciation: Zhe voodray allay ah ____. I would like to go to ____.]

Traffic, Routes and Timetables

You can calculate your bus or train itinerary online at www.ratp.fr or with the iPhone/Pad RATP app. On the screen you’ll see something like this:

Rechercher un itinéraire ou un plan de quartier.

Top of Form

Départ / Plan de quartier *    

Arrivée

* Remplir un champ pour un plan de quartier et deux champs pour une recherche d’itinéraire. Fill in one box for a neighborhood map (Plan de quartier) and both boxes, departure and arrival, for an itinerary.

Select the green Rechercher box for search and Recherche avancée for an advanced search.

Advanced search options include Heure, hour of departure or arrival and Date. You can also select for the Mode of transportation – Tous (all), Ferré (Métro, RER, SNCF, Tramway), or Bus, Tramway; and from among several Critères – Le plus rapide (fastest), Le moins de correspondance (the fewest transfers) and Le moins de marche à pied (the least walking). 

You can compare various options and will be given information on traffic delays, if applicable as well as and a map. You can also select to show detailed instructions (Afficher le détail de la feuille de route).

 

Metro and Bus Etiquette

If you’ve read my entry on bus attitude, you’ll know that the first thing you do when you enter the bus is greet the driver with a Bonjour, Madame. Bonjour, Monsieur. Always enter the bus at the front and validate your titre de transport, your ticket or pass. Exit through the rear doors. Route maps are usually posted in the bus and some buses have monitors that announce the next stop. To request a stop, press one of the buttons placed throughout the bus prior to arrival. The sign in the front of the bus will light with Arrêt demandé , stop requested.

The “métro attitude” is more impersonal which can be less intimidating for tourists. Greeting or speaking to fellow passengers on the métro is neither required nor encouraged. Since everyone enters and exits through the same doors, let the passengers exit first and then step into the car. Do not attempt to board once the doors have started to close and never attempt to force the doors open. You only need to see someone caught in the doors once to learn that lesson. Not to mention that you don’t want to be the person who shuts down the entire line and then cannot retreat when irate passengers start yelling. Line 1 is now fully automated and work is being done on other lines as well which is meant to improve traffic flow and to prevent situations like the one above.

If you’re traveling alone at night, avoid entering cars where there is no one or people you’d rather avoid. If the behavior of another passenger makes you uncomfortable, get off at the next stop and enter a car closer to the driver, if there is one. Do not engage in eye contact or discussion with anyone you do not want to talk to. Any engagement will most likely be taken as an invitation. 

 

For an entertaining take on the perils of eye contact, see Steve Buscemi below in the Tuileries segment of the film Paris, Je T’Aime.

Culture Métro

The RATP strives to make your travel as enjoyable as possible, offering reading material, musical interludes and visit suggestions. For the last fifteen years, the RATP has held annual auditions for musicians who are authorized to perform in the hallways and on the trains. Each July, the winning entries from the annual Concours Poésie RATP are posted in métro cars and buses.

 

One of my favorite historical guides to Paris is the illustrated version of Lorànt Deutsch’s book Métronome, which offers up anecdotes of 2000 years of battles, basilicas and interested events associated with today’s métro lines. His videos are on the RATP site here. Click on the X to show the Paris map with a full list of historical sites and explanations here.