Bus Transportation Question

[sdtraveller]

We will arrive at Gare de l'Est, most likely in early afternoon, and are considering taking a bus to our apartment. We also want to add a Carte Orange Mensuel to our Navigo cards for the month that begins the next day, although that can wait until we get to the apartment. Can we buy the one-trip Metro/bus tickets we need for that first bus trip inside la gare or do we need to go down to the Metro station to buy them and then come back up to the bus stop? Can we pay "cash" on the bus (if so, is exact change needed? how much?), or do we need tickets? And, similar to the first question, can we do the Navigo business in a guichet dans la gare or does that also need to be done in the Metro station itself? Alas, as backward US'ers, our cards lack le chip, so we need a person to "fill" the Navigo for us. Many thanks for your help.

[Jody]

You can buy a ticket right on the bus. I don't recall that it requires exact change. You cannot transfer with tickets bought onboard the bus. So if you need to transfer you would have to buy another ticket. Depending on how far your apt is , with 2 people and having a transfer, a taxi might be about the same price with none of the hassle

[sdtraveller]

Thanks, Jody. After I posted that I found up-to-date (I think) bus info: 1,70 euros if bought on the bus--but no info about exact change, whether you put the money in a machine on the bus or hand it to the driver, etc. Our limited bus use in the past has always been Carte Orange or Navigo. We would not need to transfer. A taxi is of course a possibility, but we are (or try to be) urban adventurers, and using the bus is our focus on this trip.