Not sure how you will ride the Paris Metro? Guenol shows the way. Website www.ratp.fr When getting around Paris, the Metro is going to be your best option. It is cheap, it is punctual and you are always going to be a five or ten minutes walk away from any Metro Station. You can identify the Metro station with this red Metro sign. I am at the Ramuteau Center and now I am going to show you, how to use the Metro. There are large maps all over in the station. However, for your convenience, you may want to pick up a small map, they are available at the storage stuff facility. It is important for you to know which direction to take the train in. You may want to think of the River sign as a sort of dividing line between the right bank and the left bank. In Paris you have both the Metro line, and the RER line or SEF as they pronounce in France. Every Metro line has a color and a number, for example where Rambuteu which is line number eleven, we are here and it is the brown line. You can distinguish the RER lines from the Metro lines because they have letters, for example you have the B line, the D line and the E line. If you have to change lines then you want to look for these blank oval shapes, such as this one at Bastille or this one here at Hotel de Ville. So, right now we are at Rambuteau, which is on the the line eleven and we are going to go to the Hotel de Ville to just one stop. Since Trains run in many directions, you can tell the direction of the train based on the lines last stopped. I can buy my ticket from the cashier, I will buy a single ticket which costs one Euro for D and with this one ticket, I can go to any stop on any Metro line as long as I do not exit a station. You can also buy what is called a carnet, which is a book of ten tickets. There are also several passes available. Occasionally, there maybe long lines at the cashier's, so you can use the machine here. Use this roller here and then they will give you different options with how to have tickets for Paris and to buy your ticket, set validez. I have my ticket now and I just need to follow the sign. So, I am going to put my ticket in here, retrieve it at the other end and you are going to follow me. In this summer it can get hot in the Metro and also very crowded, so just keep an eye on your belongings, just as you would in any other city. On every platform you are also going to find a map, where you could again confirm the itinerary. The Paris Metro is known for its punctuality and it is not going to be very long before you are going to have to wait for your next train. Notice, as the train stops the doors are not going to open automatically. Instead, you are going to have to grab one of thse metal handles here and open the door, here you go. Again in the train itself, you will see a little map with all the stops on the specific line. When you arrive at your station look at the Sortie sign, which means exit. When you have this kind of exit, you are not going to need your metro ticket. However, sometimes there are exits where you do need your ticket in, in order to exit the station. There are multiple exits in most Metro stations, usually they are named after the road on which you are going to exit. Here we go, our exit, Hotel de Ville. Do not forget that you can also use your Metro ticket on the Erca Erca and also the bus. You should also know that the Metro run to 12:30, excect on Sundays when it runs to 2:00 AM. I am Guenola showing you France.

• published: 24 Apr 2010
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