A word of caution to the traveller: magnets are not always your friends. Here’s how I found that out. I love Baggalinni bags. They are good-looking (not as good-looking as Coach, Kate Spade, Louis Vuitton, et al., of course), but light, sturdy, washable, and very functional for the traveller. Lots of pockets, pouches, and colors. However, they have one major design issue: many of the pockets close with magnets.
Metro tickets rely on a magnetic strip. If the tickets are, say, in one of the pockets with a magnetic closure, they will demagnatize very quickly. I learned this the hard way by getting stuck in the turnstiles, more than once because I am a slow learner, apparently. Fortunately, a young French woman saw my dilemma, asked if I preferred to speak English or French, and then explained, in excellent English, what had happened and told me to go to the Information Booth in the station. The staff there scanned the ticket, figured out how many trips were left, and issued a new one – in about two minutes or less. And, they graciously did not comment on my ignorance.
I think the story tells itself from there. However, the rest of the story is this: the French are incredibly kind and helpful, even to the obviously incompetent outsider, i.e., me.
That said, I continued to carry my Baggalinni which served me well. I just kept my tickets and museum passes well away from the magnets.
Check out their website. There’s a sweepstakes going on and the new bags look quite chic.