Tips for making the metro and buses in Paris easy
The Eiffel tower at night - easy to get to on the metro.
Paris is a beautiful city and one of my favorites, but it is a big city and you need to be able to get around to see its wonders. Taking a bus tour is really only good for an intro. To see it and experience it, you need to walk and take the local transportation; metro and bus. After talking with Don and Judy from my last tour (who were going on to Paris on their own), I thought it was time to write down some tips for getting around on the Paris metro like a local. The metro in Paris is easy, fast and pretty safe(only just a few pickpockets to be wise to).
First is buying the ticket. There are several options but I think only 2 are a good value for the average tourist; a carnet(”car-nay”) of 10 single rides and a Mobilis(”mo-bil-ee”) day pass. The Paris office pushes the Paris Visite pass but I do not think it is a good deal or very useful. Here are the prices as of now:
single ticket: €1.60
carnet of 10 single tickets: €11.40
Mobilis for zone 1-2: €5.40
If you plan on using the metro or a bus more than 3 times in one day, buy a Mobilis, otherwise buy a carnet. You can buy them in any Metro station. For the most part, the attendants do not speak English but the French is so easy you will have no problem. For the carnet “un carnet, s’il vous plait.”. (”oon car-nay seel vou play”) which means “one carnet please”. You give them €11.40 and they will give you a stack of 10 individual tickets. For the Mobilis, “un Mobilis pour Paris, s’il vous plait” (”oon mo-bil-ee pewr Par-ee seel vou play”) which means “one Mobilis for Paris please”. You give them €5.40 and they will give you 1 orange/white ticket that you can use all day. I specify the “pour Paris” part because the day passes are based on zones of Paris. You will most likely need only zone 1-2 which covers most all of the biggy sites of Paris and a lot of lovely wandering.
Next post - I will save the riding it for the next post as I have some great instructional photos and I think even a video.
Recent Comments