Getting around in Paris > Reviews > Moving in Paris

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Sightseeing
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around

Advantages:	easy mean to move trough Paris , quick, efficient
Disadvantages:	somestimes crowed , doesn't always smell so good

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

So as to continue my set of opinions about Paris, I’ll talk you about the way to get in and around Paris.
To do just like inhabitants, the easiest way is to use public transports.
They are really developed In Paris and it’s the cheapest way to move in Paris except if you prefer walking.

To travel in Paris you’ll need to buy tickets, the cheapest way is to buy a “ carnet” of ticket, a “carnet” is a pack of ten ticket, it cost 9,30 euros almost 6,3 pounds. A ticket cost 1,30 euros a piece, almost 85p.
In fact if you stay a while in Paris, you should buy a pass that would allow you to use every public transport as much as you want. Such pass are valid for a week end or a week their price is various according to how long they are valid and how far you are allowed to go with it. Paris region (Paris + suburbs) is divided into 9 zones. Paris is contained in the zone 1, so if you only need to visit Paris zones 1 and 2 would be enough.

Several Public transport exist:

1)Buses

A huge number of bus lines exist in Paris, most of them are restricted to a small perimeter one or two neighbourhoods. They are great if you exactly know where you wish to go.
I do not really advise you to use buses, as they could be difficult to use even if you live in Paris.

I have to admit that they indeed may be delayed (often in fact); they also may be taken in traffic jams contrary to the other public transports. But moreover that bus drivers may not all be friendly however this is a point on which the RATP (the society that manage buses) is working on.
The fact that us French drive on the right side of the road might be really confusing too.
When I was in London I constantly took the bus that went the exact opposite to where I intended to go.

So to conclude I’ll say that taking the bus could be pleasant to sightsee but be sure to not be in a hurry and to go exactly where you intend to go.

2)The Metro

It’s an abridgement for metropolitan the equivalent of the English “tube”.
There are 14 lines of metro in Paris labelled from 1 to 14. It’s a very useful means to travel in Paris and in its narrow suburb.
It’s also one of the fastest way to travel through Paris and train pass in station every 5 minutes at crowded times and every 10 or 15 minutes at calmer times of the day.
To me it’s the easiest way to go through Paris and to go to the different monuments. Every monuments and museums are indeed well served by several metros and RER. To use the metro inside Paris you’ll need an only ticket as a ticket is valid for a travel and the size of the travel doesn’t matter.

3)The RER

This abbreviation means “Réseau Express Régionnal” this could be translated into Regional express network.
This is a train network allowing Paris inhabitants to rely suburbs all around Paris as soon as possible.

In fact as most inhabitants of Paris region live in suburbs RER allows us to go to work and to come back home at the end of the day.

There are 5 lines of RER labelled from A to E. The distance between 2 stations is bigger than for the metro and consequently RER is a bit slower than metros.
RER and metro lines often interconnect and inside Paris you won’t need to buy another ticket to use them both.
In Paris you can take indifferently metros or RER but if you need to go to narrower suburbs RER will be the easiest means.

I tried to make an opinion as exhaustive as possible to be complete on Paris transports , i hope it wasn't too boring .
I hope you liked this opinion . Thanks for reading
And see you soon in Paris

Marie