Rick Steves and various random internet travel sites said don't get the Paris Visite travel pass. It's the one that lets get on and off all the transportation, including the suburban train, with one fat price. They came close to saying it was a scam put out by the tourist industry. But John wanted to get it for the convenience of not having to buy carnets all the time, and sometimes you do what your honey wants even if it's going to cost a little extra.

Well, it totally worked for us. Because we needed to take the suburban train, in addition to the metro every day, the cost worked for us. We did so much walking that it's not as if we needed a million metro fares, but we appreciated being able to run into the station at rush hour and not have to fight through a ticket machine. Mine even stopped working at one point, and I managed to get a new one, speaking only French to explain the problem.