Sunday, April 15, 2012

Paying for Metro

Hello - I am traveling to Paris for the first time. I will be arriving on the Eurostar from London. I have heard that our hotel (St. Germain area) is near a metro stop. Can I purchase a ticket using a credit card at the station to take the metro to the closest stop near my hotel? Or do you need to have cash? I have never traveled to Paris before and was just curious if I should show up with some Euros. Any advice would be helpful. Thank you!




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You can use a credit card at the ticket booth but not on the machines which do not accept US credit cards because they lack a chip. Or, you could use your debit card at an ATM at the Gare and get cash.




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Thank you. You never know what to expect!




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As noted, you can not use US-issued, magnetic-strip read credit cards in automatic vending machines at train stations.....but you can use them without difficulty at manned ticket booths...even for a single Metro ticket purchase.





BUT...since you will be arriving from London aboard the EUROSTAR train, you may have converted any left-over British £%26#39;s into €uros at a Bureau de Change (remember to save a few coins or bills for %26#39;souvenirs%26#39;) at Saint Pancras...or received €uro denomination change for a purchase aboard the Eurostar...with this in mind, you can use any €uro denomination coinage (only) that you may have acquired en-route from London to the PARIS-Gare du Nord METRO station in the automatic vending machines.




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Wonderful. Thank you so much for the information! I really appreciate it.




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As you pass through Gare du Nord (turn Left at the end of your Eurostar arrival platform, onto the main concourse of Gare du Nord...then straight ahead for 75-100 yards to the RER/Metro entrances) you can stop along the way to take care of some little %26#39;admin/housekeeping%26#39; chores/errands---purchase PARIS MUSUEM PASS at the Tourist Information %26#39;BIENVENUE/WELCOME%26#39; kiosk, stop at a newsstand to purchase a copy of PARISCOPE magazine for %26#39;..what%26#39;s on/where/when..%26#39; during your stay in Paris, purchase a copy of the L%26#39;INDISPEBSABLE compact mapbooks (very detailed), pick up free copies of the RATP%26#39;s %26#39;..PARIS--GRAMD PLAN--Lignes et Rues, large format (think Texaco road map) public transportation system map (at Metro/RER ticket windows). These are all little nonsense chores..but can save you time searching later on.




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Awesome! Thanks so much. You are just full of information!!




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I%26#39;m pretty sure you can buy metro tickets on the Eurostar, from the snack bar. This might save you a little time.




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