Hi, we are staying outside Paris next week (after the olympics closing ceremony) and were planning a trip into the city, probably on Tuesday 13th August. Our nearest RER would be Cergy-Pontoise and the initial idea was to park there and get the train into the city. However it’s looking rather expensive with the olympics pass and needing to buy navigation cards for everyone (or at least the kids). Is there a better way? Should we drive further into the city instead? We are two adults and two children (7 and 4).
1 answer
Unfortunately there's no really good options for cheap Paris transport passes until the Paralympics are completed and fare prices return to normal (on Sept 9th).
For unlimited ride day passes the Paris 2024 Pass is the only option at the moment, unless it was a Saturday or Sunday when the kids could use a Navigo Jeunes Week-end day passes.
If you think you could handle a day of mostly walking for sightseeing, you could park at La Défense (info only in French) and buy 4 Ticket t+ tickets (4€ each = 16€) for you two adults and 4 RER child tickets for La Défense to Paris (3€ each = 12€) for the kids, to cover getting in & out of the city using Metro line 1.
You'd use 2 Ticket t+ (for you & partner) and 2 RER child tickets for the kids to get into the city center and use the remaining to get back to La Défense when you're done.
The reason why I'm suggesting 2 Ticket t+ for adults (good for Metro or RER zone 1, 4€) and 2 RER La Défense-Paris child tickets for the kids (good for Metro & RER zones 1-3, 3€) is that Ticket t+ is only discounted for kids when purchased as a pack of ten tickets, not individual tickets. RER child tickets have a kids discount for any quantity (single tickets or packs of 10) so they end up being cheaper (3€) than the Ticket t+ (4€).
So the total cost could be 16 + 12 = 28€ whereas 4 Paris 2024 passes would be 16€ x 4 = 64€.
To get into the city you'd take Metro line 1 from La Défense using La Défense station (the RER tickets work fine for Paris Metro) to say Hotel de Ville station. Then you could start your wanderings there, making your way westward. You can see a wealth of things just walking in a 30 minute radius from this point.
When you're tired / done for the day you can take Metro or RER lines that intersect with Metro Line 1 to get to Metro line 1 which you can then take back to La Défense station and return to your vehicle. Note that you can't use RER A line directly to or from La Défense since the adults are using Ticket t+ which are only good for Metro or RER in zone 1 and La Défense is in zone 3. (Fare zones don't apply to Paris Metro.)
Anyways, I hope this gives you a possible solution.