R.A.T.P Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens

Be prepared to encounter scents you never dreamed of in your wildest and most terrifying nightmares. Typical fair is a mixture of rotting vegetables, piss, vomit, European vagrancy, and if you’re lucky strong ethnic spices such a cumin. The Paris metro will get you from point A to point B… whilst you are pressed firmly against the greasy window of a metro car by a large Nigerian woman or perhaps a sweaty businessman along with a horde of other passengers. During rush hour, pray for a mass exodus at your stop, otherwise you will have to worm your way into the ever packed cars. When it’s not rush hour, you may be able to get a seat, most likely stained with years of ballsweat and gum. The train does come, typically before too long, so it does serve a purpose and will transport you, however I think it is extremely sub par for a city of Paris’ size. If you throw away or misplace your ticket after passing through the turnstile, and have the misfortune of running into one of the gestapo-​esque «controllers», pray to whatever god you believe in because they will have no mercy on your soul. Keep your ticket with you. Some stations are cleaner than others… the «other» stations are like your very own trip to Mogadishu. Expect to be robbed and propositioned for hashish and cocaine amongst other narcotics and services. One of the major downfalls of this system is that it is not 24÷7… no wonder people say Paris’ nightlife is dead! It closes at some unheard of hour on weekdays, 12 or something, and just 1:30 or 2am on weekends. The RATP will provide as little service as possible, with widespread delays due to people offing themselves out of sheer disgust and hopelessness, whilst looking to achieve maximum profit. So next time you find yourself in Paris needing to cross the city, mentally prepare yourself, you’re in for one hell of a ride.

This is the official organization who run the Paris Metro. They are not the RER who run the trains. The trains go out of Paris to places like the airports and Disneyland. The Metro run by the RATP is the system that most visitors encounter and use. The RATP manages 16 subway lines and over 300 stations on the Metro. There are 4.5 million people riding it per day. No doubt 90% of them are riding it for free through some resident social welfare program. That is why the cost to ride the Metro is so damn high for the rest of the world’s population. Some of the stations are like garbage dumps or ghetto alleyways. Others are as clean as operating rooms.
Even with a muti-​day pass (Paris Visite — 1, 2, 3 and 5 day) expect to pay $ 10 – 12 per day depending on the number of days.
Caution: multi-​day passes are not useful from day to day from the hour you bought it. Example: if you buy a 2 day on Monday at 4 pm, it will expire at 5:30 am on Wednesday rather than Wednesday at 4 pm. That makes buying your multi-​day metro card early in the morning, very important. One can buy individual tickets or a book of ten passes. The real deal is a Mobilis pass
because it is for the whole day and costs about $ 10 for zones 1 – 3 (just like the Paris Visite pass) and it actually costs a wee bit less than the Paris Visite pass. Caution: none of these passes are sold at the ticket machines, they are only sold at ticket kiosks. The Metro website is sometimes helpful.

Caution: none of these passes on the Metro will get you to or from the airports. Those are purchased from a real human being in a ticket kiosk at major stations. They are about $ 25 per person. Caution: none of the Metro passes will get you on a bus. Bus passes are more expensive, but you can pay when you get on a bus.