Paris Visite / Mobilis and other Paris, France Transportation Tips

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: When you go to Paris for two days or longer it is to be recommended to buy a Paris Visite ticket. With this ticket you can travel through Paris unlimited if you buy the one with 3 zones. With 5 zones (a lot more expensive) you can also visit Disneyland Paris and Versailles. But better is it to buy a Paris Visite for 3 zones and to take a single ticket for 5 zones if you want to go here.For younger people (-23) they sell a Paris Visite Jeune. This is a lot cheaper, but often you have to ask for it!

If you only spend one day in the city and you are planning to travel a lot with the metro in that day (more than 4 times) it is cheaper to buy a Mobilis Ticket. It has the same zone-system as the Paris Visite, and is also valid for RER and Busses, just like the Paris Visite.

Only if you spend only one day in the city, or you are planning to only use the metro a few times (4 times or less) it is wise to buy single tickets. You can also buy them in a package of 10 tickets which are cheaper, but that still is more expensive then the other two options.

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Website: http://www.ratp.fr

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: Paris has one of the most efficient and complex metro-systems in the world. The "Métropolitain" is the most important way of transportation in the city, with more then 4 million users a day. The metro in Paris was first opened in the year 1900. Today the system has 16 lines and 211 kilometres of tracks.

Travelling with the Metro is very easy, very fast and relatively cheap. At the metro-map (that is in every metro-station and on every citymap) you can find the routes of the 16 lines of the metro-network. All these lines have different colours. The same colours are used in the station as well, so it is very easy to just remember the colour of the line you need. Just find out in which direction you want to travel, and remember the end-station of that direction. Knowing that you clear indications in the station will point you to the right train.

Once you are inside the metro you can just follow the route on the clear scheme's that are above all the doors in every metro. Every route has little triangles on its line: normal stations. And every route also has white circle on its line: these are the stations where you can change lines. The end of every line is indicated by a white rectangle. Inside the metro it is also indicated to which lines you can change at the "white circles".

Some of the most important lines for tourists are:
* Line 1 (yellow) that connect the Chateau de Vincennes with La Défense, with on its way the Louvre, Place de la Bastille, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees and the Place de la Concorde.
* Line 9 (light green) that connect the Bois de Boulogne in the east with the Trocadéro (Eiffel Tower), the Champs-Elysees, the big warehouses all the way to the Place de la République.
* Line 12 (dark green) connecting Montmartre with the Sacre Coeur to the Madeleine, Place de la Concorde, Musée d'Orsay and Les Invalides all the way to the Tour Montparnasse.

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Website: http://www.ratp.fr

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: The RER stands for Réseau Express Régional, meaning Regional Express Network. It is a second network of metro-trains that works exactly the same. The RER-network, that was opened in 1969, only covers bigger distances, connecting all the suburbs around the city centre. Inside the périferique the RER-trains go underground, just like the metro, but as soon as they get outside of this ringroad, they go on above the ground. The lines are also visible on the normal metro-map, but there are separate RER-map too.

Within the citycentre you are also allowed to use the Metro with a 1-3 zones metro-ticket. But the connections are slower and more complicated, so it is wise just to take the metro here. But if you are planning to visit Disneyland Paris or Versailles, or if you are coming from the Airports or heading there, than you need a RER-train.

For these further trips you most of the times need a ticket that is valid for 1-5 zones. One last important thing about the RER is that it always has more possible routes. For example the RER towards Versailles is RER C. But towards the end of the line the trains choose different routes. The one going to the Chateau de Versailles is RER C5. So before you get on the train you should first look which of the connections you need. Don't only look at the letters, but also pay attention to the number behind them!

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Website: http://www.ratp.fr/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Another complex transportation network in Paris is the network of Busses. In the whole of the city there are more then 1300 busses, mostly painted in turqoise. The lines are numbered from 20 to 96 and are also indicated on the basic (free) tourist maps of Paris.

The busses connect anywhere to everywhere, as the big advantage is that you are able to have a look around while you are going from one place to another. The very big disadvantage though: the average speed of a bus in Paris is 13 kilometers an hour!

That is the reason why I have never used a bus yet in Paris. If I want speed I rather take the metro, and if I want to have a look around I rather go on foot.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: The most important tip for car owners who want to visit the city of Paris is: don't do it! Paris' traffic is hectic, traffic jams are everywhere, parking is very difficult and expensive and finding your way around can be a problem too.

A better way to visit Paris when you are by car is to park the car in the parking at Porte de la Chapelle. This is the northern suburb of the city, just inside the Periférique. Parking here is not expensive (€11,- a day) and the Metro is just around the corner.

The parking is not accessible for people who don't have a ticket, which makes it quite a safe place to park your car. Note: the ticket can only be paid with coins! No bankcard, no notes, just coins, so make sure you have enough of them! The parking is open 24 hours a day; you can open the door on the outside with your ticket, so don't leave it in your car!

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'Mode': TO
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: The highspeed-train network of France (TGV = Train a Grande Vitesse, Train at High Speed) was the first one in Europe and still is the best. With Paris as the heart of this network, there are connections to all over the country and abroad as well. All connections have their own names:

- Eurostar for the UK
- Thalys for Belgium and Holland
- TGV for France and Spain
- TGV Est Europeen for Germany
- TGV Lyria for Switzerland
- Artesia for Italy

And all these destinations depart from different stations in Paris as well:

- Gare du Nord for the UK, Belgium and Holland
- Gare de Lyon for Italy and Switzerland
- Gare d'Austerlitz for Spain
- Gare de l'Est for Germany and Eastern Europe

The connections with all these highspeed trains are fantastic: the trains are comfortable, fast and not too expensive. It is wise to reserve your tickets as far on forehand as possible because tickets generally are cheaper then, and they might be sold out as well. For all the trainstations you can get directly into the Metro-system and be on your final destination in Paris in no-time!

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Website: www.tgv-europe.com

'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: The biggest airport of France, and one of the biggest in Europe, is Charles-de-Gaulle Airport north of Paris. In 2008 more then 60 million passengers crossed this airport, making it the 5th biggest airport in the world.

CDG has three terminals, all handling both local and intercontinental flights. The terminals are all connected by the CDGVAL, a sort of metroline that makes a connection every few minutes.

It's very easy to reach the Airport from the centre of Paris, using the RER line B. Station Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1 is the best one to take for Terminals 1 and 3, Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 – TGV is the best one for Terminal 2. For a trip to the airport from the citycentre you'll need to calculate 45 minutes...

There also is a TGV (highspeed-train) station on the airport making it very easy to reach a lot of French cities with a fast, direct connection. For other European destinations you'll need to change on one of the other TGV-station in Paris. For more info about this, check out my TGV-tip.

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Website: http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/ADP/en-gb

'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: South of Paris there is the second biggest airport of the city: Orly Airport. This is the busiest airport for national flights, and the second one in France according to the total number of departures.

The airport has two terminals. Orly-Sud is the one where mostly intercontinental flights depart: to the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and North-America. Orly-West has mostly national and some continental departures. These two terminals are connected by the OrlyVAL, a metroline that runs every few minutes and that also connects with the RER-line.

This RER-line is the fastest connection to the city-centre. Take line B to go to the centre, or to go to the other airport: Charles-de-Gaulle. A trip to the centre takes about 35 minutes. Another way to get to the centre is by taking the Orlybus, that goes directly to Denfert-Rochereau, a square in the south of the centre.

There are no TGV-connections directly to Orly. You'll have to take the RER/Metro to get to the nearest trainstation.

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