METRO and other RAPID TRANSIT
First understand, the METRO is cheap, convenient, safe, and easy to use. You need a metro ticket, which you can buy at every station. We usually buy a carnet which is 10 tickets for about 12 euros You also can buy one or two tickets, if it is just to be one trip. You can buy them at the booth or at the automatic machine, using cash or your credit card.[but not Amex].
But now, Something new has been added. IledeFrance app. When you download it, with one of your credit cards as payment portal, you now use it instead of those little tickets. Great, convenient and it works !
In most cases, each line has just one train, no express or local, or different train lines, sharing a platform. . Before you descend to the platform, you will notice a sign listing each station that the train will stop. Just check before descending to make sure that you are going in the right direction. Each train car has on it a strip map with all the stops, and showing all the possible connections at each stop.
When you get off at your stop, if you have to transfer, just follow the signage. You might have to walk a long distance, but following the signs will bring you to the correct track.
When you get to your stop, notice that each station has a large, local map indicating each entrance and its number to the streets, , so that you will be headed off to the correct side of the street. They even show the direction of the staircase. One hint: the numbering of buildings on each block decreases in the direction of the Seine.
One important note: hold onto your ticket until you complete your ride. There are, occasionally, inspectors, checking your tickets. This is done to prevent "turn style jumpers." We even had a group of inspectors get on the train and check for tickets while train was moving. They don't full around , for these tickets. If you use this new APP, they have a way of checking you mobile phone to insure that you paid you fare.
The buses of Paris use the same tickets as the metro, and the IleFrance app. They, too, have their route clearly indicated at each stop, and along the side of each bus. They go slower than the metro, having to deal with local traffic, but if affords one the possibility of enjoying the sights of Paris life along the way. The streets of Paris have many lanes, exclusive for buses and cabs, that make travel faster. At each bus stop, on top of the shelter, there is a sign indicating what buses will stop there as well as an indicter with the arrival time. Avoids a lot of anxiety.
Taxis, are another option. The are expensive, like NYC, but the can travel on the bus/cab lanes allowing them to move faster through the traffic. Available cabs will have a, green light on top. You can go to taxi stations, or now you can hail them in the street. Some cabs will not stop, most will.. And cabbys reserve the right to not accept groups of more than 3. Ask the driver if he will take 4 passengers. Some will, some will not.
The RER are trains that go to the outskirts of Paris. You pick them up at many metro stops, and they use a similar metro ticket, but you must upgrade them [at additional fare] at booths leading to the RER trains. These trains travel faster than the metro, and make fewer stops, more like the LI railroad than the NYC subway.
