Navigo like the natives through the Paris Métro

Navigo Découverte pass — a must for bargain-seeking Paris visitors  I am the proud owner of a Navigo card for the Paris RATP that I will keep safely stashed with my passport for my next Paris visit.  If you plan to be in Paris for more than a few days and would like to move freely through the city on all the buses and trains, I highly recommend doing as the natives do and buy a Navigo pass. You can leave the pass in a secure pocket of your shoulder bag and use it without even pulling it out. You’ll see Parisians swiping their bags across the tops of the Metro gates, which open as if by magic.   Don’t bother with the Paris Visite pass that’s designed for tourists, unless you work the numbers carefully and need to move through zones 1-3. Of course, the RATP wants your tourist dollars, so the English-language landing page of the RATP site is a hard sell for the Paris Visite card. No such luck for the Navigo card. There’s no visible link to information about it anywhere that I can find on the English version of the RATP web page.  On the other hand, the impending doom of the Carte Orange is big news on the site’s main home page: Les agences Le Club seront ouvertes samedi et dimanche.  Dès le 1er février 2009, le coupon magnétique carte Orange ne sera plus vendu! Venez l’échanger contre un passe Navigo personnalisé dans les agences Le Club RATP. Roughly translated, this is entitled “RATP offices will be open Saturday and Sunday,” which, for Paris, is truly big news as no important agency is ever open on Sunday.  The announcement continues: “From February 1, 2009, the magnetic carte Orange tickets will no longer be sold! Come make the change to a personalized Navigo pass at the offices of Le Club RATP.” So how do they expect an English speaker to buy the more economical Navigo pass? They don’t. But there’s no law against it. They’ve even designed a special card for nonresidents, le passe Navigo Découverte. Here’s what I can share about Navigo card buying strategy: None of the automated machines for recharging the Navigo card (or for buying individual Metro tickets or carnets) will accept your credit or debit card unless it is denominated in Euros. I thought, at first, that the problem was lack of a chip. No, it seems to be a technical issue with the system: no foreign exchange allowed. I was able to buy an RER ticket at CDG with my dollar-denominated credit card, but the system in the Metro is different. You can put coins into one of the machines to recharge a Navigo, at least theoretically, but I was never able to get this to work. Ever try fiddling with nearly 19 Euros worth of change? I always got an error before completing the transaction. So how did I manage to get my very own Navigo card and use it successfully when no one would sell me a Carte Orange? • First off, I went to the tabac near my local station and bought a startup Navigo card package. The initial cost is 5 Euros, plus the weekly or monthly fare you’ll add to the card. In the tabac, you can pay with plastic… or even with cash. • It seems all the Metro stations have photo kiosks now. Get a sheet with 20 little headshots of yourself and put one on the ID card part of the Navigo. Then put that card somewhere else besides where you carry your sensored Navigo. You’ll need that card with photo if you are asked for it to prove you’ve paid for your ride, or if you lose the other part. You’ll have lots of leftover pics that you can use on other cards. I put one on my membership card when I became an Adherent of the Societe des Amis du Louvre. • When it’s time to add another week or month to your Navigo, don’t bother with the machine. If you are in the Metro, go to a guichet window and ask the friendly clerk to recharge your card. Again, you can pay with plastic or cash. Alternately, go back to your local tabac and have them recharge the card. Note that not all tabacs in cafes and brasseries are equipped with terminals for recharging the Navigo. It’s best to find a little specialist tabac. Many Parisians are unhappy with the thought of having to use a computerized card because of privacy concerns. Perhaps they’re afraid the government will begin tracking their movements through the RATP system. It’s comparable to how people in my home state of Illinois felt when they were forced (by economics: paying cash costs almost 2x more) to start using I-Pass sensors on the toll roads. © 2009 Lanora S. Mueller. Lanora Schoeny Mueller is back in Chicagoland after five wintry weeks in Paris. She blogs variously about travel, writing, photography, new media and anything else that comes to mind at WritingTravel.com and Lanora Mueller Photography. Photograph credit: Lanora S. Mueller.