le ticket "t"+
There's a new transit ticket which allows you to ride for 90 minutes and transfer if you're taking the bus or métro. Previously you needed to use one ticket per ride if you were taking the bus, which was a hassle for bus-takers, like me. It's also terrific news if you'd like to make a quick round-trip visit somewhere—you can use the same ticket. This also means there's a slight fare hike and the older tickets, while still valid, will be phased out.
Unfortunately even though they're the same system, the new tickets still won't allow you to transfer between bus and métro. Only bus-to-bus, or bus-to-tram. And visitors should be warned that in most of the métro stations, the human cashiers have been replaced by machines and the machines don't take US-based credit cards; you either need to have cash to slip into the machine (ayor...) or a credit card with a puce, or smart-chip.
I did learn that if the machine eats your money, you can use your powers of persuasion and the agents in the booth can check the machine to verify the last few transactions on the machine's computer.
More info about the new transit tickets can be found here (in French).
Velib'
As part of the mayor's plan to reduce traffic and congestion, starting July 15th, the city of Paris is commencing with a program where you can borrow one of their 20,000 low-cost bicycles (forget that the name is a derivation of the word libre, or free). The city has installed lots of bike lanes in anticipation, although pedestrians (and dogs) make such frequent use of them that bicyclists usually have a bit of tricky maneuvering to do.
Still, for just 29€ for annual membership, you can grab a bike from any of the hundreds of stations scattered around Paris (there's one every 300 meters apart in the city) and ride it free for 30 minutes. After that, it's 1euro; for the next half-hour, 2€ for the second half-hour, and 4€ for the next half-hour. I guess they're not too keen on folks holding onto the bikes for so long; the idea being to hop on a bike to make an errand then drop it off.
Abonnement (subscription) cards will be available at various boulangeries and pastry shops (!), as well as the city hall in each arrondissement, post offices, and métro stations. If you're from out-of-town and aren't used to riding in Parisian traffic, you may wish to bring a helmet.
Personally, the idea of riding in traffic around here scares the merde out of me.
But I'm going to give it a go. Bonne chance!...
More info can be found here (in French).
You can also rent a bike from the city for the day (10-14€) or a half-day from Roué Libre for 10-15€/day. The two pick-up and drop-off points are in the Bastille (37, blvd Bourdon, Tél: 01 44 54 19 29) and at Les Halles (1, passage Mondétour.)
UPDATE: The website for www.rouelibre.fr appears to be down at this time, so call first.
And there are also private bike rental outfits, such as Paris Cycles and Paris Bike Tours, which rent bicycles by the hour or by the day.
David, this is great information for our next trip. You are truly a (chocolate) fountain of information.
Lu: I like the fact that you can go to a bakery or pastry shop to sign up!
Great information, thank you David! I've sent this link to Jackie (the Aussie you met at Ici) who's currently in Rome but will be in Paris soon! By the way -- made the Rocky Road last night. Mon DIEU.
I was wondering what those "stations" were. Thanks for solving the mystery. It is a great idea but you won't catch me venturing into Parisian traffic..you are brave, aren't you!
Do we have confirmation on the metro ticket machines not accepting US cards? I only ask when I was there in June 2006 they accepted my US card, so did they get all new machines since then? Or some do and some don't - and it's anyone's guess which is which?
wished 'le ticket' included 'le airplane'
Kim: One time I tried to use my US card, it got rejected. So I went yesterday to see if that was a one-time fluke. And...of course, the machine was broken.
I do know for a fact the train ticket machines at the various SNCF gares don't accept US-based credit cards, although their web site does.
I'll try to find a machine that works and post an update here...