design-sans-titre

150€ fine for a plant on the subway

undefined undefined 6 mai 2025 undefined 12h00

undefined undefined 6 mai 2025 undefined 13h13

The Editor

Montage : Le Bonbon © Here Now / Designermridul / GBJSTOCK / Shutterstock

You can hardly imagine the surprise of this young Parisian who was fined this Sunday while she was about to take the metro. And for good reason, behind this fine lies an unusual reason: transporting a plant.

In the metro, the reasons for getting a fine are numerous. Very numerous. There’s fare evasion, of course, but also some behaviors deemed inappropriate, like putting your feet on a seat or playing music on a speaker instead of using headphones. However, even though the reasons are varied and diverse, we were far from guessing that transporting potted plants could actually land us in trouble…


An Unusual Situation

This Sunday, when she heads to a plant sale, Salomée has no idea that her day is about to take a completely different turn. Especially since her purchase of the day, a stunning bird of paradise in a pot, is going to cost her much more than expected. Because, just as the young woman is getting ready to take line 3 at République to head home...

with her new acquisition in her arms, she is immediately stopped by inspectors.

What if we just start by asking her for her Navigo pass, like in any regular check? The agents ultimately decide to keep her on the side, asking for her identity card. Facing the silenсе of the inspectors, Salomé finally asks what's going on, to which the person in front of her responds that she's being fined because her plant is too big!


A hefty fine

As a result, the young woman has to pay €150, and she immediately contacted RATP on X (formerly Twitter) to complain about the situation. We understand her frustration, as the amount of the fine suggests that it is currently more profitable to cheat in public transport (now €50) than to travel with a .plant (1.30 m tall, sure, but it’s not exactly the end of the world, wouldn’t you agree?).

Cherry on top, it reads on the fine « Dangerous or prohibited object in a car », while the incident happened only a few meters after the turnstiles, and the young woman wasn’t even in a hallway, on a platform, and definitely not in a train. «The inspector could have just asked us to turn back, we would have done it ! », she expresses her regret to our colleagues at the Parisien. Once the amount was settled, she was still allowed to take the metro with her paradise bird, which is r&eacut.e;pond is now sweetly called Prune. At least she has managed to keep her sense of humor!