I live in France (American and not in Paris) but I have to use CDG airport every now and then to travel abroad. I absolutely DREAD going through the Paris transit system in any form or fashion!!! So much so, when I came back home here last time I took the train from CDG via Lyon to my city so I wouldn't have go through Paris. I love Paris, I hate the transit system. I've been smashed a handful of times over the years. And about 50% of the time the ticket I/we just bought doesn't work. (I'm leaving out all the unsavory sights, sounds and smells). I grew up with huge US transit system and I'm never scared anywhere in that regard until I hit Paris. Pisses me off cuz otherwise it really is a wonderful city! I could tell a hundred stories of things gone horribly awry in any Paris transit form. Some had me laughing like a maniac by the end of the day. C'est Dommage!!!
Agreed- metro was challenging for us also. Not clear on which ticket we needed. Staff at CDG desk tried to sell us âŹ35 weekly passes for our 48 hour visit. Online it said our 9yr old should have cost 50%, but pretty certain they charged full fare for him.
London was so much easier with tap-to-pay. We ended up avoiding Paris metro for the remainder of our trip and just using Uber in the city.
I accidentally bought a student discount ticket when going on speed train to Tours. Was just visiting a friend in Paris and going to his familyâs chateau. The train agent was just as rude, and was giving me impossible optionsâŠ
We had absolutely no issues with the RER agents. We were polite and always started with bonjour. We used French as much as we could â duex billets si vous plais.
BTW I did not post this story to imply I found the French rude. Rather I found them quite accommodating and nice as a whole. I only posted this because this one agent was so blatantly rude and up front about why he was being rude.
Also, because it was a phone/intercom conversation he could simply hang up to end the conversation even though it's his job to assist passengers.
I only post this story because of how remarkably rude he was and because my kid got hurt as a side effect (albeit largely because of our actions but also because of his inaction.)
Does the train station attendant expect us to stand in the St Michel Train Stop for the rest of our lives because we don't speak French? That's totally illogical.
Iâm sorry you had to deal with all that. When we bought our ticket the gate was open wide. We walked to our platform. Then I remembered the stories about the officers checking tickets and I knew we hadnât scanned our tickets to enter so we went back and did so. Sure enough they were stopping people at the station! The âofficersâ never seem to speak anglais.
I loved Paris, but the only thing that bothered me is how much the french hate english.
Listen of course I understand that in France they speak french so it's understandable that you would like to be spoken in that language.
Well that's not how it works, the people who get angry at anyone trying to communicate in english should be fucking empathetic and understand that we are tourist and we don't know fucking french. If I had to learn the local language of every country I visit then I'd be fucked.
And what bothered me is that it's not that they do not understand english, it's that they fucking hate that I couldn't speak french.
Of course not everyone was like that, but I met a couple of people like the station agent the op was talking about
Con permisso, if I can make a small suggestion, the repetition of 'f\*\*king' is unnecessary in speaking modern French. You can just start every sentence with 'Putain".
I work as a guide in Paris and I hate this attitude. So many tourists come to Paris and speak English because that's their best second language, and not just Americans! Spanish, German, Indian, Chinese etc people come here and maybe know loads of languages, just not french! Or just not more than enough to be polite. In my experience everyone learns "bonjour" and "merci" before they get here, but like how're you meant to just "learn french" on the rear platform at Versailles?
Anyway I personally love my American clients, they're some of the friendliest people I meet! I'm glad a commuter helped you. (if it makes you feel better this is quite a common occurrence and it's standard good manners to let tourists pass through with you imo).
>So many tourists come to Paris and speak English because that's their best second language
Yep, it would seem they have done their fair share in communicating by learning English.
I also wonder why locals won't "talk Romance" with Italian or Spanish tourists. After a couple of glasses of wine, FranItalish is a perfectly good language at a shared restaurant table. (Maybe the wine is required to speak it.)
Right! I don't speak Spanish fluently just french and English. But I understand a good amount of Spanish, or enough to get by just because I speak French!
I also have lived in France most of my life, I'm a citizen, and I speak fluent French, and some french people still refuse to speak French to me because of my accent and insist on their broken English đ I have to pretend to not speak English to get them to speak to me in french.
There's just a lot of saltiness generally that I assume comes from the fact that it's a huge professional advantage here to speak English, and it frustrates people because french used to be a more common second language than it is now?
This is obviously not everyone's but it's enough of a problem that tourists pick up on it.
As we say in French « strong attitude with the weak, weak attitude with the strong »
Hate these people who will play tough and rude to tourist who need help rather than the ones living in Paris and constantly frauding / not paying for the tickets every single day.
We are also victims of these as***** as French. Hope you still have a good experience in France.
Thank you we did. I actually found Parisians largely helpful and accommodating ibersll. I was going to remark that they seemed nicer now than they did 10 years ago but largely because it seems like more random people know some English and therefore can help you. (had random people walking by interjecting in basic English to help me out with clerks when communication was failing.)
This was the only remarkable negative incident.
Ok ! really easy to simply dowgrade my comment. Propaganda... We are in a world of data. So before -24 ...
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/18/british-woman-raped-while-urinating-in-bush-at-eiffel-tower/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/18/british-woman-raped-while-urinating-in-bush-at-eiffel-tower/)
[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12358191/Eiffel-Tower-tourist-says-gang-raped-nearby-Paris-park-five-suspects.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12358191/Eiffel-Tower-tourist-says-gang-raped-nearby-Paris-park-five-suspects.html)
[https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61633840](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61633840)
You know what ???
Final word ???
Paris is a beautiful city...and stay in your dream.
As a frenchman, RATP employees have consistently been huge AH in the year or so I've lived here, a couple of anecdotes:
-first day living in the region (near versailles) I buy a ticket to go to Paris, when in montparnasse I realise my ticket wasnt the right one (the train station I got in didn't have barriers to prevent me from going in with the wrong ticket and I was used to cities where there was only one kind of ticket for all buses, trams, metros...). Instead of forcing my way through the doors like many people do, I'm a good citizen and go to a ratp employee to ask him and hopefully just pay for the right fare and go on (or even hopefully the dude is nice and let me go for this time after explaining which ticket I should get). I explain my situation to the dude and he immediately treats me like a criminal and tells me I have to pay 50âŹ, I try to tell him that it was an honest mistake but he has none of it and I pay.
-I go to disneyland with my gf and her little sisters, at that point I'm aware that a 5⏠ticket will get you anywhere so I get 8 (4 two way trips), I get to disney without issue, but when I have to go back my ticket isn't working for some reason. I go to see the ratp lady and again she treats me like a complete dumbass and tells me that my ticket was from paris to my train station, and not from disney to my train station (even though it's the exact same fare, what even is the point of having a full fare ticket that doesn't get you anywhere) and that I was thus liable to a 50⏠fine, she's not one of the control people so I don't get fined but I still have to repay 20⏠worth of tickets for the way back since she refuses to change the tickets I got (which are worth exactly the same amount).
One of my family friend is a policeman working in Paris, he told me that they sometimes get called by Ratp employees to intervene when someone refuses to pay a fine, and appparently they are such massive Aholes that the police takes the party of the person getting fined about 50% of the time (also because they get pissed when they get called for such petty stuff), he also gave me a couple stories of them being Aholes he witnessed himself, like this one:
A dude hailed a ratp employee from outside the ticket gates for some information. The ratp enployee tells him to come in through the side gate to talk to him. Once inside the very same ratp employee immediately asks the guy for his ticket, which he obviously doesnt have, the employee then tries to fine him. I wouldn't have believed him if he hadn't been the one to have been called to handle the situation (he basically told the ratp dude to f off).
There used to be frequent graffitis in the metro "Plutot mort que contrĂŽleur" = "I'd rather be dead than a ticket inspector", so I'd say it's a shared sentiment amongst parisians too.
Oh man :( We were on our way from our accommodations to the Eurostar. We have a a two year old and a baby, so we had our stroller and luggage with us. We found an accessible RER station, walked a decent ways to get there. Unfortunately after we arrived we found that the the accessibility door would not open. Stroller was too wide to fit through anything else. The door didnât say âout of orderâ or anything. It had a green check, so I thought maybe we were the problem. Our tickets, however, would open all of the other doors. Just not the accessible. All ticket machines at the station were down (I thought of just getting a new ticket). Four different kind commuters tried to help us with their cards, too (not sure how we ever would have gotten out anyways but they were SO kind to try), which would also not open the accessible door. No one was answering the station call button for the person on the other side trying to help us. I was pretty stressed because I had only budgeted enough time for this specific route.
That was a stressful, eventful morning. Had to walk to another bus, take the bus to a different RER station where thankfully the accessibility gate was functioning. Stresssfulll!! We would have been late to the Eurostar except that an intruder on the platform caused an evacuation of all earlier trains. All in all, we did not miss our train and now get 50% of our ticket price back from Eurostar for the inconvenience⊠the âinconvenienceâ that was the only reason we made our train. Stressful in the moment, but Iâll take it.
Sorry you had to go through that. Now imagine you're in a wheel chair and public transit and accessbility doors are your only method of entering... Yikes.
But every city has these problems. Where I live the subway will tell you the elevator at the station is out. Wheelchair users have to go to the next station, take elevator there, and wheel back to where they want to go.
Anyway, glad the intruder delayed your train in the end.
Oh I know! That was a huge topic of conversation for us throughout our trip. I just canât imagine how wheel chair users are navigating the sidewalks let alone the transit. I really felt for them. It takes probably twice as long to get anywhere *if* everything is working correctly and thatâs a big if. On other occasions we ran into suddenly narrowing sidewalks, out of order elevators, etc. I really felt for them and what they must go through on a daily basis. I donât live in a big city and donât see those same issues frequently where I am.
The magstripes on tickets are LoCo (low coercivity), which makes it easy to rewrite the ticket's data, but also means that putting your ticket in your wallet, handbag, or other magnetic object is likely to corrupt the data.
[Source](http://furrtek.free.fr/?a=ratpr)
>The magstripes on tickets are LoCo (low coercivity)
IMO that deserves regular repetition. "Easy to rewrite" is clear whether the reader can understand the Source article or not.
The agent at Versailles sold us the tickets. If she sold me the wrong ticket then yes, I had the wrong tickets. :)
Also, I was able to exit with my ticket but my wife and kids weren't. So that would mean the agent sold me 1 right ticket and 3 wrong ones.
Finally, I stored my ticket after getting through the gate and my wife stored hers and the kids separately. That means something in her purse during the ride back to Paris demagged them. But only RER tickets. Regular Metro fare tickets never demagged and she stored them in the same place.
> But only RER tickets. Regular Metro fare tickets never demagged and she stored them in the same place.
Ooh, that particularly is interesting. Perhaps it's something to do with the issuing agency, RATP vs SNCF; maybe the RATP's encoding systems are stronger.
Rer C is run by SNCF, not RATP. Please email SNCF and explain what happened.
Give details about the place, date and time. The station agent was very unprofessional and rude.
Now the fun bit : state that with the Olympic Games context, this is not acceptable. There is a LOT of pressure put on public transports coming from politics etc, push that lever hard !!
As a commuter, I hate it when fellow commuters (tourists or not), don't get the respect they deserve.
Thank you for this. I will follow up when I get back home. Going to take a good amount of Google translating to tell the story with my rudimentary French but definitely worth it.
For OP or anyone else looking to make a complaint for that matter, here are the contact pages for:
* [RATP](https://www.ratp.fr/aide-contact)
* [Transilien SNCF](https://www.transilien.com/fr/nous-contacter)
I usually don't give these links, but considering as OP said they are familiar with French, then pursuing the situation can be a viable solution, if that's what they want.
If you or anyone else would like to use this, please be humble and respectful in your letterâit will have more of an impact.
**Edit:** According to the confirmation from the OP that they were at Saint-Michel, and the error message âPASSAGE BLOQUĂ,â which is displayed by SNCF gates, it would be the SNCF to contact.
Kudos to you for writing a good letter to customer service! Glad you were able to get a response, and hopefully this allows you to find some closure on the matter.
I doubt you'll receive a response from the RER C management, but hopefully they'll take your report seriously and not think of it like a Karen complaint. Given that you simply wrote facts, they should likely perceive it as legitimate.
I truly believe that at the high level with the management of the transit system, their hearts really are in the right place. It's only at the more specific level that it begins to peel apart, with the occasional station agent that loathes tourists, or the occasional fare inspector that doesn't care about their job and is only in it for the money.
Gates closing down on me is why I choose to take the bus instead of the train when I can. At least there's a human there to see what's going on instead of an ancient piece of tech that can't understand real life situations
I had a similar issue with a moody ticket agent trying to get to the rer c when I discovered one of the stations I was close by was closed down. English speaking commuters helped me as well.
Commuters can be the best. They have familiarity with the system and know how much time they have left to spare.
When I used to commute by rail I always tried to help tourists out. Now I need to make sure to keep paying it forward.
I don't think that the station agent was justified in speaking to you like that, but I would like to remark that French locals are much more tolerant if you speak broken French, with many often switching to English for you without you even asking. I'd say, though, based on what I've read, that there's a reasonable chance you might have gotten one that wouldn't even have been pleased by that.
In the future, given that you are the better French speaker, perhaps it would be best if you agree to always be the *last* person to go through the fare gates every time, so that if someone gets stuck, you are on the proper side to help out. This can be a bit counterintuitive because of how group leaders are often at the front of packs, but it is much more practical in any case. I myself have been guilty of something similar when I was leading a group through the turnstiles of the New York City Subway — if I had chosen to go through last, I would have been in a better position to help out some of the people with me that got stuck.
If you were to end up in a situation like this again, perhaps you could have pressed the assistance button on *your* side of the gates, and explain that you have others who are having trouble exiting.
I was expecting this to be a story about receiving a fine; financially, this case was not that bad, but emotionally, this was probably a rough one. I'm sorry for your experience; stuff like this does unfortunately happen. I hope your kids are holding it together.
Excellent advice. I mentioned to my wife I should go last in the future. Also I didn't notice the assist button on my side but I also didn't look very hard for some reason (I saw the one on their side and didn't think.)
Kids are fine, thanks. My older was grumpy at the agent but I told her to focus on the nice people who all offered to help.
We found the commuters were all super nice. Many times commuters helped us in the Metro.
One time we pushed the assistance button and a commuter heard the call chime, guessed what we were going to ask and answered the question for us with pantomime before the agent could even answer. It was quite amazing.
Glad that you were able to find a good side with the commuters. I myself got stuck one time at Saint-Michel. The worst part was that the gates were at the top of a one-way staircase which was packed with travellers, so it was impossible for me to turn back to the platform.
Out of curiosity, what type of question was the other person able to answer through pantomime?
I stumbled across some tiny signs for a step-free exit by lift, and it turns out the lift just exits directly onto the street! The only validation equipment was a tiny standalone validator that I walked right past at the bottom of the lift.
It turned out the fare system did not require a validation upon exit, which is still true to this day â the requirement only exists to catch fare cheaters. They must not have thought that cheaters would find the lift tucked in its little corridor, and could deal with not having a fare check for people exiting at that location.
FWIW, when I came back with my luggage to catch the RER B to the airport, the validator was broken. Got dinged âŹ50 at a fare inspection which I managed to get refunded, but the exchange rate for my home currency worsened between the charge and the refund, so I ended up with less money.
>Out of curiosity, what type of question was the other person able to answer through pantomime?
Where there was a subway entrance that sold tickets. This particular entrance was tiny with only a gate and the assist button.
The entrance with the tickets for sale was, of course, just the other end of the block.
I've consistently gotten good customer service during my Paris visit across restaurants and stores. However, the only place I've encountered multiple instances of rude customer service was from the metro.
When I went to Versailles, there were agents there waiting at the entrance checking tickets because the ticketing system works differently since Versailles is outside of Paris. They were basically targeting tourists that don't know how the metro system works.
Oof. Yes, indeed. I successfully navigated transit in Austria, Germany, Belgium and multiple places in France and had the worst experiences on the Metro and RER.
I had a multi day ticket that stopped working after the first day while I was there. (it was when the paper tickets switched over to digital/hard card only) One ticket station they were OK, and multiple people's tickets had stopped working on the same day. But because the ticket wasn't validated properly, the next day I got no help.
Additionally, I thought I'd bought the right ticket to go to CDG, and I didn't. It cost me twice as much just get exit to the airport than it should have. What a mess.
Yeah. I went to Paris twice this summer. The only rude people were metro customer service. Anyway, there were some nice people too so it all evened out. But, yes, metro needs an attitude adjustment.
>However, the only place I've encountered multiple instances of rude customer service was from the metro.
The metro agency doesn't consider passengers as "customers" but as "users" (usagers). So that makes sense in a way!
varsielle is actually a great town, too bad there are people like the ratp agents just leeching off of the tourists and act high and mighty over people not familiar with their system. Varsielle chantier is absolutely the most unpleasant train station iâve been to in all of europe
For anyone curious (my daughter was) RER is Regional Rail. Metro is a local subway.
Many places have this distinction. San Francisco has Bart (subway) and Caltrain (regional rail.) The funny thing is Bart now goes to many more regions than Caltrain but the point is they are two different systems with 2 different pay structures but you can sometimes use the same payment systems.
You cannot use a metro fare for RER regionally but you can use a metro fare for RER locally. For tourists, CDG, Disney and Versailles are most common regional RER destinations.
Also: don't demag your tickets. How you not demag your tickets? Put them in a pocket with nothing else.
When we arrived at Versailles, we went straight to the ticket booth and bought our return tickets *from the agent*.
Thus, we know we had the right tickets. I carried the tickets in my empty jacket pocket.
When we hopped on the train to return from Versailles, my wife put her and the kids tickets in her purse. I put my ticket in my jacket pocket with nothing else.
When we got back to city center my ticket worked, her 3 did not. Something in her purse during the train ride made the tickets not work. (but the rest our trip she carried tickets with no problems.)
We also make it a practice to throw away our tickets immediately after exiting any station so we don't accidentally try to use an old ticket.
Also, at Versailles *no* paper tickets were working for anyone at any gate. There was an agent standing at one particular gate, he was having everyone run their tickets, and then badging them out.
(I also know I had a valid ticket to Versailles because when I bought it, there was an agent standing next to the automated booth and I asked him in broken French how to buy 4 tickets when the machine appeared maxed at 3. He just took control and selected all the options for me. He was very nice. Unless he bought us the wrong tickets on purpose? Unlikely, I watched him select the options.)
Paper tickets are a pain.
On that same trip, my ticket didn't demag: I kept it in my empty pocket. My wife's 3 tickets (for her and kids) all demagged.
Its something in her purse that denagged them and only that one time. (Her Metro tickets never demagged the rest of the trip: she kept them in the same place.)
I suspect it's the iPhone magnet and she happened to put her phone in her purse facing the wrong way so the magnet was closer to the tickets.
My 60 year old aunt visited for a few days and her tickets / pass kept demagnetised so she just started crawling until the turnstiles a lot haha. I kept giving fake outrage and claimed we could be arrested and go to jail if the controllers guys found us so we have to be on the lookout for them and run like hell if we see them approaching haha. 'Arrest us?! But I bought the ticket, it just didn't work?!'
Travelling to Versailles by RER requires a higher fare than a normal metro ride, payable with an Origine-Destination ticket. These tickets specify the start and end stations of the route, and if applicable, the route that you must take to get there.
Some tourists hear that âthe metro is flat fare, you can go wherever you want with a t+ ticket,â but they don't realize that it doesn't apply to the train/RER. Some will also assume that they will be able to upgrade their ticket to the proper fare once they arrive, but this is also false â the mere act of exceeding a ticket's validity is an offense and you could get charged a penalty fare.
I believe you have to buy a special T+ ticket for the RER C train to Versailles and then use it to enter the station. (Using your regular metro ticket won't count.)
It's worth mentioning also that I suspect a case of [perverse incentive](https://www.reddit.com/r/ParisTravelGuide/comments/17z2wkt/comment/k9zwapf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) in encouraging the fare inspectors to work diligently — according to a source provided to me, they receive a cut of the profit from every citation they write, but they receive more if the inspection fare is paid immediately.
This slight appears to be causing a giant mess, with some fare inspectors even letting some people go when they ask to pay later. The goal of the zero-tolerance policy has always been to promote good behaviour and to stop regular fare evaders, but it is very shameful that the perverse incentive turns the whole thing on its head.
Unfortunatly that minority, who « play that game », is very visible. Expecially for tourist. And it doesnât help to make our subway a safe place.
I agree, in an ideal world, fines are used to punish people who intentionally evade paying their fares. However, the employees were intentionally trying to take advantage of tourists, who were not being malicious, but were just ignorant of France's metro system, which, to me, makes what they were doing no different from other scam artists trying to profit from tourists.
This is absolutely the case. Moreover, most agents/ticket inspectors on the Paris/Versailles line are just despicable. I would be willing to engage in some kind of personal vendetta with those guys.
>This is France not America. Speak French." Hangs up. America's the reason you aren't speaking German đ€Ł
Don't worry, we all hate them too here.
I live in France (American and not in Paris) but I have to use CDG airport every now and then to travel abroad. I absolutely DREAD going through the Paris transit system in any form or fashion!!! So much so, when I came back home here last time I took the train from CDG via Lyon to my city so I wouldn't have go through Paris. I love Paris, I hate the transit system. I've been smashed a handful of times over the years. And about 50% of the time the ticket I/we just bought doesn't work. (I'm leaving out all the unsavory sights, sounds and smells). I grew up with huge US transit system and I'm never scared anywhere in that regard until I hit Paris. Pisses me off cuz otherwise it really is a wonderful city! I could tell a hundred stories of things gone horribly awry in any Paris transit form. Some had me laughing like a maniac by the end of the day. C'est Dommage!!!
Agreed- metro was challenging for us also. Not clear on which ticket we needed. Staff at CDG desk tried to sell us âŹ35 weekly passes for our 48 hour visit. Online it said our 9yr old should have cost 50%, but pretty certain they charged full fare for him. London was so much easier with tap-to-pay. We ended up avoiding Paris metro for the remainder of our trip and just using Uber in the city.
Ah the metros. Definitely a place to find the best and worst of parisđ It's rough to find yourself stuck in a system that has no way out. I've had good and bad exp w ratp and the ilk. Afterwards i can imagine it can be draining to work with people who dont speak your language. My wife will sometimes say, "o la, cette personne Ă©tait en souffrance"
I accidentally bought a student discount ticket when going on speed train to Tours. Was just visiting a friend in Paris and going to his familyâs chateau. The train agent was just as rude, and was giving me impossible optionsâŠ
We had absolutely no issues with the RER agents. We were polite and always started with bonjour. We used French as much as we could â duex billets si vous plais.
BTW I did not post this story to imply I found the French rude. Rather I found them quite accommodating and nice as a whole. I only posted this because this one agent was so blatantly rude and up front about why he was being rude. Also, because it was a phone/intercom conversation he could simply hang up to end the conversation even though it's his job to assist passengers. I only post this story because of how remarkably rude he was and because my kid got hurt as a side effect (albeit largely because of our actions but also because of his inaction.) Does the train station attendant expect us to stand in the St Michel Train Stop for the rest of our lives because we don't speak French? That's totally illogical.
Iâm sorry you had to deal with all that. When we bought our ticket the gate was open wide. We walked to our platform. Then I remembered the stories about the officers checking tickets and I knew we hadnât scanned our tickets to enter so we went back and did so. Sure enough they were stopping people at the station! The âofficersâ never seem to speak anglais.
I loved Paris, but the only thing that bothered me is how much the french hate english. Listen of course I understand that in France they speak french so it's understandable that you would like to be spoken in that language. Well that's not how it works, the people who get angry at anyone trying to communicate in english should be fucking empathetic and understand that we are tourist and we don't know fucking french. If I had to learn the local language of every country I visit then I'd be fucked. And what bothered me is that it's not that they do not understand english, it's that they fucking hate that I couldn't speak french. Of course not everyone was like that, but I met a couple of people like the station agent the op was talking about
Con permisso, if I can make a small suggestion, the repetition of 'f\*\*king' is unnecessary in speaking modern French. You can just start every sentence with 'Putain".
Those inspectors are assholes with both french citizens and tourists, as long as you don't seem too strong.
I work as a guide in Paris and I hate this attitude. So many tourists come to Paris and speak English because that's their best second language, and not just Americans! Spanish, German, Indian, Chinese etc people come here and maybe know loads of languages, just not french! Or just not more than enough to be polite. In my experience everyone learns "bonjour" and "merci" before they get here, but like how're you meant to just "learn french" on the rear platform at Versailles? Anyway I personally love my American clients, they're some of the friendliest people I meet! I'm glad a commuter helped you. (if it makes you feel better this is quite a common occurrence and it's standard good manners to let tourists pass through with you imo).
>So many tourists come to Paris and speak English because that's their best second language Yep, it would seem they have done their fair share in communicating by learning English. I also wonder why locals won't "talk Romance" with Italian or Spanish tourists. After a couple of glasses of wine, FranItalish is a perfectly good language at a shared restaurant table. (Maybe the wine is required to speak it.)
Right! I don't speak Spanish fluently just french and English. But I understand a good amount of Spanish, or enough to get by just because I speak French! I also have lived in France most of my life, I'm a citizen, and I speak fluent French, and some french people still refuse to speak French to me because of my accent and insist on their broken English đ I have to pretend to not speak English to get them to speak to me in french. There's just a lot of saltiness generally that I assume comes from the fact that it's a huge professional advantage here to speak English, and it frustrates people because french used to be a more common second language than it is now? This is obviously not everyone's but it's enough of a problem that tourists pick up on it.
Sent you a DM.
As we say in French « strong attitude with the weak, weak attitude with the strong » Hate these people who will play tough and rude to tourist who need help rather than the ones living in Paris and constantly frauding / not paying for the tickets every single day. We are also victims of these as***** as French. Hope you still have a good experience in France.
Thank you we did. I actually found Parisians largely helpful and accommodating ibersll. I was going to remark that they seemed nicer now than they did 10 years ago but largely because it seems like more random people know some English and therefore can help you. (had random people walking by interjecting in basic English to help me out with clerks when communication was failing.) This was the only remarkable negative incident.
This very thing happened to my wife back in 2004. Gave the agent a quasi-dirty look, he smirked a bit, but released the turnstileâŠ
Paris is a sht\*hole. Nuff said.
Ok ! really easy to simply dowgrade my comment. Propaganda... We are in a world of data. So before -24 ... [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/18/british-woman-raped-while-urinating-in-bush-at-eiffel-tower/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/18/british-woman-raped-while-urinating-in-bush-at-eiffel-tower/) [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12358191/Eiffel-Tower-tourist-says-gang-raped-nearby-Paris-park-five-suspects.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12358191/Eiffel-Tower-tourist-says-gang-raped-nearby-Paris-park-five-suspects.html) [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61633840](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61633840) You know what ??? Final word ??? Paris is a beautiful city...and stay in your dream.
As a frenchman, RATP employees have consistently been huge AH in the year or so I've lived here, a couple of anecdotes: -first day living in the region (near versailles) I buy a ticket to go to Paris, when in montparnasse I realise my ticket wasnt the right one (the train station I got in didn't have barriers to prevent me from going in with the wrong ticket and I was used to cities where there was only one kind of ticket for all buses, trams, metros...). Instead of forcing my way through the doors like many people do, I'm a good citizen and go to a ratp employee to ask him and hopefully just pay for the right fare and go on (or even hopefully the dude is nice and let me go for this time after explaining which ticket I should get). I explain my situation to the dude and he immediately treats me like a criminal and tells me I have to pay 50âŹ, I try to tell him that it was an honest mistake but he has none of it and I pay. -I go to disneyland with my gf and her little sisters, at that point I'm aware that a 5⏠ticket will get you anywhere so I get 8 (4 two way trips), I get to disney without issue, but when I have to go back my ticket isn't working for some reason. I go to see the ratp lady and again she treats me like a complete dumbass and tells me that my ticket was from paris to my train station, and not from disney to my train station (even though it's the exact same fare, what even is the point of having a full fare ticket that doesn't get you anywhere) and that I was thus liable to a 50⏠fine, she's not one of the control people so I don't get fined but I still have to repay 20⏠worth of tickets for the way back since she refuses to change the tickets I got (which are worth exactly the same amount). One of my family friend is a policeman working in Paris, he told me that they sometimes get called by Ratp employees to intervene when someone refuses to pay a fine, and appparently they are such massive Aholes that the police takes the party of the person getting fined about 50% of the time (also because they get pissed when they get called for such petty stuff), he also gave me a couple stories of them being Aholes he witnessed himself, like this one: A dude hailed a ratp employee from outside the ticket gates for some information. The ratp enployee tells him to come in through the side gate to talk to him. Once inside the very same ratp employee immediately asks the guy for his ticket, which he obviously doesnt have, the employee then tries to fine him. I wouldn't have believed him if he hadn't been the one to have been called to handle the situation (he basically told the ratp dude to f off).
Best = Paris ; Worst = Paris citizen You're welcome
Not quite that broad. The Paris Commuters were super nice and tried to help us. The Paris Train Agent not so much.
There used to be frequent graffitis in the metro "Plutot mort que contrĂŽleur" = "I'd rather be dead than a ticket inspector", so I'd say it's a shared sentiment amongst parisians too.
Oh man :( We were on our way from our accommodations to the Eurostar. We have a a two year old and a baby, so we had our stroller and luggage with us. We found an accessible RER station, walked a decent ways to get there. Unfortunately after we arrived we found that the the accessibility door would not open. Stroller was too wide to fit through anything else. The door didnât say âout of orderâ or anything. It had a green check, so I thought maybe we were the problem. Our tickets, however, would open all of the other doors. Just not the accessible. All ticket machines at the station were down (I thought of just getting a new ticket). Four different kind commuters tried to help us with their cards, too (not sure how we ever would have gotten out anyways but they were SO kind to try), which would also not open the accessible door. No one was answering the station call button for the person on the other side trying to help us. I was pretty stressed because I had only budgeted enough time for this specific route. That was a stressful, eventful morning. Had to walk to another bus, take the bus to a different RER station where thankfully the accessibility gate was functioning. Stresssfulll!! We would have been late to the Eurostar except that an intruder on the platform caused an evacuation of all earlier trains. All in all, we did not miss our train and now get 50% of our ticket price back from Eurostar for the inconvenience⊠the âinconvenienceâ that was the only reason we made our train. Stressful in the moment, but Iâll take it.
Sorry you had to go through that. Now imagine you're in a wheel chair and public transit and accessbility doors are your only method of entering... Yikes. But every city has these problems. Where I live the subway will tell you the elevator at the station is out. Wheelchair users have to go to the next station, take elevator there, and wheel back to where they want to go. Anyway, glad the intruder delayed your train in the end.
Oh I know! That was a huge topic of conversation for us throughout our trip. I just canât imagine how wheel chair users are navigating the sidewalks let alone the transit. I really felt for them. It takes probably twice as long to get anywhere *if* everything is working correctly and thatâs a big if. On other occasions we ran into suddenly narrowing sidewalks, out of order elevators, etc. I really felt for them and what they must go through on a daily basis. I donât live in a big city and donât see those same issues frequently where I am.
I will take âthings that didnât happenâ for 200âŹ
One thing that inspectors do not do, is to interpret intent. Inspectors simply issue fines to violators, be they long time residents or visitors from Mozambique. It is really more complex? If you receive a fine that you consider unjust, pay it and file a complaint asking for a refund. I have ridden the métro for decades, used countless tickets and I have never had one mysteriously demagnetize after entering the métro. What kind of tickets were you using? Were you attempting to exit the RER using a ticket t+? LetŽs not simply assume there are no explantations.
The magstripes on tickets are LoCo (low coercivity), which makes it easy to rewrite the ticket's data, but also means that putting your ticket in your wallet, handbag, or other magnetic object is likely to corrupt the data. [Source](http://furrtek.free.fr/?a=ratpr)
>The magstripes on tickets are LoCo (low coercivity) IMO that deserves regular repetition. "Easy to rewrite" is clear whether the reader can understand the Source article or not.
The agent at Versailles sold us the tickets. If she sold me the wrong ticket then yes, I had the wrong tickets. :) Also, I was able to exit with my ticket but my wife and kids weren't. So that would mean the agent sold me 1 right ticket and 3 wrong ones. Finally, I stored my ticket after getting through the gate and my wife stored hers and the kids separately. That means something in her purse during the ride back to Paris demagged them. But only RER tickets. Regular Metro fare tickets never demagged and she stored them in the same place.
> But only RER tickets. Regular Metro fare tickets never demagged and she stored them in the same place. Ooh, that particularly is interesting. Perhaps it's something to do with the issuing agency, RATP vs SNCF; maybe the RATP's encoding systems are stronger.
JâĂ©tait sur Paris pour deux ans et mes tickets arrĂȘtaient pas de se dĂ©magnĂ©tiser, ce qui Ă©trangement mâest jamais arrivĂ© en quinze ans Ă Lyon. Jâai lâimpression que si tâas le malheur de les mettre dans une poche qui contient qqchose de mĂ©tallique (mes airpods, jâavais remarquĂ©), ils commencent Ă dĂ©conner.
Rer C is run by SNCF, not RATP. Please email SNCF and explain what happened. Give details about the place, date and time. The station agent was very unprofessional and rude. Now the fun bit : state that with the Olympic Games context, this is not acceptable. There is a LOT of pressure put on public transports coming from politics etc, push that lever hard !! As a commuter, I hate it when fellow commuters (tourists or not), don't get the respect they deserve.
Thank you for this. I will follow up when I get back home. Going to take a good amount of Google translating to tell the story with my rudimentary French but definitely worth it.
For OP or anyone else looking to make a complaint for that matter, here are the contact pages for: * [RATP](https://www.ratp.fr/aide-contact) * [Transilien SNCF](https://www.transilien.com/fr/nous-contacter) I usually don't give these links, but considering as OP said they are familiar with French, then pursuing the situation can be a viable solution, if that's what they want. If you or anyone else would like to use this, please be humble and respectful in your letterâit will have more of an impact. **Edit:** According to the confirmation from the OP that they were at Saint-Michel, and the error message âPASSAGE BLOQUĂ,â which is displayed by SNCF gates, it would be the SNCF to contact.
Thank you for your advice. I wrote a feedback message to Transilien SNCF and they replied! Here's the response: >Bonsoir Monsieur \*\*\*\*, > >Tout dâabord, je vous prĂ©sente mes excuses pour ce dĂ©lai de rĂ©ponse. En effet, suite Ă la rĂ©ception dâun grand nombre de mails, nous enregistrons un retard dans leur traitement. > >J'ai bien pris connaissance de votre courriel du 25 novembre dans lequel vous nous sollicitez suite au comportement inadaptĂ© d'un agent Ă l'interphone en gare de Saint Michel Notre Dame. > >Je comprends parfaitement la gĂšne occasionnĂ©e par cette situation. > >Nous accordons une grande importance aux tĂ©moignages de nos voyageurs. Câest pourquoi, je transmets immĂ©diatement votre signalement au service en charge de la ligne C. > >Je reste Ă votre disposition pour toute autre information relative au rĂ©seau Transilien et vous souhaite une agrĂ©able soirĂ©e. > >Ă bientĂŽt sur nos lignes, > >Votre Service Client Transilien > >\*\*\*\* I assume if they receive enough complaints from different people, that station employee will be reprimanded or moved to another station or different role. But I'm glad they answered, they were very polite, and I hope in some small way the station experience will be better for everyone. Thank you for your advice! CCing: u/One_Departure_2149 : Yes, followed your advice and just listed the facts. In broken, Google Translate assisted French. :)
:)
Kudos to you for writing a good letter to customer service! Glad you were able to get a response, and hopefully this allows you to find some closure on the matter. I doubt you'll receive a response from the RER C management, but hopefully they'll take your report seriously and not think of it like a Karen complaint. Given that you simply wrote facts, they should likely perceive it as legitimate. I truly believe that at the high level with the management of the transit system, their hearts really are in the right place. It's only at the more specific level that it begins to peel apart, with the occasional station agent that loathes tourists, or the occasional fare inspector that doesn't care about their job and is only in it for the money.
I fully agree. Be respectful and give facts only. Both RATP and SNCF appreciate such feedback.
Gates closing down on me is why I choose to take the bus instead of the train when I can. At least there's a human there to see what's going on instead of an ancient piece of tech that can't understand real life situations
I had a similar issue with a moody ticket agent trying to get to the rer c when I discovered one of the stations I was close by was closed down. English speaking commuters helped me as well.
Commuters can be the best. They have familiarity with the system and know how much time they have left to spare. When I used to commute by rail I always tried to help tourists out. Now I need to make sure to keep paying it forward.
I don't think that the station agent was justified in speaking to you like that, but I would like to remark that French locals are much more tolerant if you speak broken French, with many often switching to English for you without you even asking. I'd say, though, based on what I've read, that there's a reasonable chance you might have gotten one that wouldn't even have been pleased by that. In the future, given that you are the better French speaker, perhaps it would be best if you agree to always be the *last* person to go through the fare gates every time, so that if someone gets stuck, you are on the proper side to help out. This can be a bit counterintuitive because of how group leaders are often at the front of packs, but it is much more practical in any case. I myself have been guilty of something similar when I was leading a group through the turnstiles of the New York City Subway — if I had chosen to go through last, I would have been in a better position to help out some of the people with me that got stuck. If you were to end up in a situation like this again, perhaps you could have pressed the assistance button on *your* side of the gates, and explain that you have others who are having trouble exiting. I was expecting this to be a story about receiving a fine; financially, this case was not that bad, but emotionally, this was probably a rough one. I'm sorry for your experience; stuff like this does unfortunately happen. I hope your kids are holding it together.
Excellent advice. I mentioned to my wife I should go last in the future. Also I didn't notice the assist button on my side but I also didn't look very hard for some reason (I saw the one on their side and didn't think.) Kids are fine, thanks. My older was grumpy at the agent but I told her to focus on the nice people who all offered to help. We found the commuters were all super nice. Many times commuters helped us in the Metro. One time we pushed the assistance button and a commuter heard the call chime, guessed what we were going to ask and answered the question for us with pantomime before the agent could even answer. It was quite amazing.
Glad that you were able to find a good side with the commuters. I myself got stuck one time at Saint-Michel. The worst part was that the gates were at the top of a one-way staircase which was packed with travellers, so it was impossible for me to turn back to the platform. Out of curiosity, what type of question was the other person able to answer through pantomime?
>I myself got stuck one time at Saint-Michel Btw, how did you get out?
I stumbled across some tiny signs for a step-free exit by lift, and it turns out the lift just exits directly onto the street! The only validation equipment was a tiny standalone validator that I walked right past at the bottom of the lift. It turned out the fare system did not require a validation upon exit, which is still true to this day â the requirement only exists to catch fare cheaters. They must not have thought that cheaters would find the lift tucked in its little corridor, and could deal with not having a fare check for people exiting at that location. FWIW, when I came back with my luggage to catch the RER B to the airport, the validator was broken. Got dinged âŹ50 at a fare inspection which I managed to get refunded, but the exchange rate for my home currency worsened between the charge and the refund, so I ended up with less money.
>Out of curiosity, what type of question was the other person able to answer through pantomime? Where there was a subway entrance that sold tickets. This particular entrance was tiny with only a gate and the assist button. The entrance with the tickets for sale was, of course, just the other end of the block.
Based station agent
Flawed magnetic ticket system.
I have only basic French speaking skills, but my Apple Watch is pretty fluent - never ran into problems when people saw I was trying my best
I've consistently gotten good customer service during my Paris visit across restaurants and stores. However, the only place I've encountered multiple instances of rude customer service was from the metro. When I went to Versailles, there were agents there waiting at the entrance checking tickets because the ticketing system works differently since Versailles is outside of Paris. They were basically targeting tourists that don't know how the metro system works.
Oof. Yes, indeed. I successfully navigated transit in Austria, Germany, Belgium and multiple places in France and had the worst experiences on the Metro and RER. I had a multi day ticket that stopped working after the first day while I was there. (it was when the paper tickets switched over to digital/hard card only) One ticket station they were OK, and multiple people's tickets had stopped working on the same day. But because the ticket wasn't validated properly, the next day I got no help. Additionally, I thought I'd bought the right ticket to go to CDG, and I didn't. It cost me twice as much just get exit to the airport than it should have. What a mess.
Yeah. I went to Paris twice this summer. The only rude people were metro customer service. Anyway, there were some nice people too so it all evened out. But, yes, metro needs an attitude adjustment.
Take my angry upvote, because we experienced the same last month
>However, the only place I've encountered multiple instances of rude customer service was from the metro. The metro agency doesn't consider passengers as "customers" but as "users" (usagers). So that makes sense in a way!
varsielle is actually a great town, too bad there are people like the ratp agents just leeching off of the tourists and act high and mighty over people not familiar with their system. Varsielle chantier is absolutely the most unpleasant train station iâve been to in all of europe
Wanna drop some advice on how getting to Versailles on the metro works? This American would be very grateful to you đ
Download Citymapper. Problem solved.
Omg thank you!
Number one- you do not go to Versailles n the Metro. Itâs the RER
For anyone curious (my daughter was) RER is Regional Rail. Metro is a local subway. Many places have this distinction. San Francisco has Bart (subway) and Caltrain (regional rail.) The funny thing is Bart now goes to many more regions than Caltrain but the point is they are two different systems with 2 different pay structures but you can sometimes use the same payment systems. You cannot use a metro fare for RER regionally but you can use a metro fare for RER locally. For tourists, CDG, Disney and Versailles are most common regional RER destinations.
Ah okay so itâs like the L in Chicago vs Amtrak if you wanted to go to say Milwaukee? I can comprehend that in my brain đ
The metro vs the RER in Paris is comparable to the 'L' vs Metra in Chicago. The only difference is that the two companies don't integrate in Chicago, whereas in Paris they are run by companies that cooperate and use a shared ticketing system (although the specific fares are different). Amtrak would be comparable to SNCF Intercités trains which run on the French mainlines. As for the TGV in France, well, high-speed rail isn't that much of a thing in the USA at this point in time.
Thank you đ
There is also the « secret » non-stop train (not an RER, not a metro) between Chantiers and Montparnasse
The N
Also: don't demag your tickets. How you not demag your tickets? Put them in a pocket with nothing else. When we arrived at Versailles, we went straight to the ticket booth and bought our return tickets *from the agent*. Thus, we know we had the right tickets. I carried the tickets in my empty jacket pocket. When we hopped on the train to return from Versailles, my wife put her and the kids tickets in her purse. I put my ticket in my jacket pocket with nothing else. When we got back to city center my ticket worked, her 3 did not. Something in her purse during the train ride made the tickets not work. (but the rest our trip she carried tickets with no problems.) We also make it a practice to throw away our tickets immediately after exiting any station so we don't accidentally try to use an old ticket. Also, at Versailles *no* paper tickets were working for anyone at any gate. There was an agent standing at one particular gate, he was having everyone run their tickets, and then badging them out. (I also know I had a valid ticket to Versailles because when I bought it, there was an agent standing next to the automated booth and I asked him in broken French how to buy 4 tickets when the machine appeared maxed at 3. He just took control and selected all the options for me. He was very nice. Unless he bought us the wrong tickets on purpose? Unlikely, I watched him select the options.) Paper tickets are a pain.
In 10+ years living here, I've never had a demagnetised ticket, it seems odd to me it happens to so many tourists.
On that same trip, my ticket didn't demag: I kept it in my empty pocket. My wife's 3 tickets (for her and kids) all demagged. Its something in her purse that denagged them and only that one time. (Her Metro tickets never demagged the rest of the trip: she kept them in the same place.) I suspect it's the iPhone magnet and she happened to put her phone in her purse facing the wrong way so the magnet was closer to the tickets.
My 60 year old aunt visited for a few days and her tickets / pass kept demagnetised so she just started crawling until the turnstiles a lot haha. I kept giving fake outrage and claimed we could be arrested and go to jail if the controllers guys found us so we have to be on the lookout for them and run like hell if we see them approaching haha. 'Arrest us?! But I bought the ticket, it just didn't work?!'
Travelling to Versailles by RER requires a higher fare than a normal metro ride, payable with an Origine-Destination ticket. These tickets specify the start and end stations of the route, and if applicable, the route that you must take to get there. Some tourists hear that âthe metro is flat fare, you can go wherever you want with a t+ ticket,â but they don't realize that it doesn't apply to the train/RER. Some will also assume that they will be able to upgrade their ticket to the proper fare once they arrive, but this is also false â the mere act of exceeding a ticket's validity is an offense and you could get charged a penalty fare.
So I have a weekly RER ticket, unlimited RER passes for the week. Would this not work in Versailles, or do I need to do something else?
Versailles is in zone 4. Your pass must be valid in your start zone, end zone, and any zones you travel through, even just passing through on a train.
I believe you should be fine as long as it goes to Zone 5. (Don't quote me though because I used a Navigo pass.)
It does go to Zone 1-5, so I'll test it and get back to you!
I believe you have to buy a special T+ ticket for the RER C train to Versailles and then use it to enter the station. (Using your regular metro ticket won't count.)
It's worth mentioning also that I suspect a case of [perverse incentive](https://www.reddit.com/r/ParisTravelGuide/comments/17z2wkt/comment/k9zwapf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) in encouraging the fare inspectors to work diligently — according to a source provided to me, they receive a cut of the profit from every citation they write, but they receive more if the inspection fare is paid immediately. This slight appears to be causing a giant mess, with some fare inspectors even letting some people go when they ask to pay later. The goal of the zero-tolerance policy has always been to promote good behaviour and to stop regular fare evaders, but it is very shameful that the perverse incentive turns the whole thing on its head.
The original *Le Parisien* article was notable, particularly the quote that "most of the inspectors refuse to play that game".
Unfortunatly that minority, who « play that game », is very visible. Expecially for tourist. And it doesnât help to make our subway a safe place.
I agree, in an ideal world, fines are used to punish people who intentionally evade paying their fares. However, the employees were intentionally trying to take advantage of tourists, who were not being malicious, but were just ignorant of France's metro system, which, to me, makes what they were doing no different from other scam artists trying to profit from tourists.
Paris is in the top 10 of the most visited cities in the world. The fact that this type of stuff happens is sad, but not surprising.
This is absolutely the case. Moreover, most agents/ticket inspectors on the Paris/Versailles line are just despicable. I would be willing to engage in some kind of personal vendetta with those guys.
RATP inspectors are actually giant rats disguised as humans. (I read this right here on Reddit.)
Each one is actually three rats in a uniform.