Buses in France

What are your origin and destination?

I took a lot of buses in France last year, and the inter-city buses were quite comfortable. A really long bus ride isn't a lot of fun, however.

From Paris to Avignon about 9 hours and 15 minutes.
Thanks

And are you sure your train will be cancelled ? "Strike day" might mean that some trains on your route are cancelled and some are running. Not definite until the day before (at 5 p.m. !)

It is cancelled, unfortunately. Trains are already cancelled for May.

Tashi. What do you mean trains for May have already been cancelled? There are Strike days and non-strike days. You can find good information in OUI.com.
SNCF will refund your money for the ticket. The bus from Paris to Avignon is about 9 hours with an hour+ stopover in Lyon.. Why not try to exchange your ticket and go on a non strike day?

Yes, I found at the SFNC site that the train will be cancelled. They also have a chat but they are volunteers so they can't do much besides telling you because it it says "non bookable" it will be cancelled.
When we arrive there will go to the train station and try to change them for the day before, if price is reasonable.
Thanks

You should not have to pay the €40 price difference to exchange your ticket for another reserved travel date. If the system is not letting you make the exchange, is that because you bought it through another web page? If so, then take advice from that sales agency.

If you're willing to travel without a seat assignment on the strike day, you can also use your current ticket on any remaining trains serving the route that day.

Note these excerpts from https://en.oui.sncf/en/train/strike, to reiterate the different terminology [edits mine].

Your train may be [currently] closed for reservation:
Some trains may be closed for reservation during the strike period. They are displayed as "train full" on our website and application.
If their circulation is [later] confirmed and there are still seats available, the reservation may be offered between 48h and 24 hours before departure.

Your train may be cancelled:
On our website, these trains are displayed as "cancelled". It means that they do not operate.
On our app, deleted trains are not displayed.

For your travels between 30 April and 31 May, 2018

WITH TGV IN FRANCE AND INTERCITES
If your trip is scheduled a day of strike, you can, before departure, exchange your ticket or apply for a refund without fees or additional costs, including non-exchangeable / non-refundable rates.

That is correct, I should not have to pay 40 euros difference but that is what the system is doing. One thing is the information they put in the site and another thing what the system automatically does. I tried all the way up to before and pay and it will charge me more money. France electronic systems are not very good. We will see if at the train station will do something better. I contacted the snfc via chat and they say I have to pay for the difference.
Thanks

Earlier this month, we took FlixBus from Lyon to Montpellier, a four hour ride. We reserved it ahead (due to the rail strike), but we were not able to select seats. Instead, it was every man for himself when we boarded. Our seats were okay, but didn’t have much leg room. There was a toilet onboard and it was quite decent. It wasn’t an awful ride, but I wouldn’t want to be on it for nine hours.

Our second bus ride was on OuiBus from Montpellier to Marseilles airport, a little over two hours. We reserved it ahead, but we’re not able to select seats. Instead, seats were assigned and passengers were able to find their seat assignments online one hour before departure. Our seats were 1 row ahead of the back seat. The seats had very little legroom and we certainly didn’t recline ours because we would have been in the laps of the people in the back row. Definitely wouldn’t want to have been on this bus for nine hours.

Another thing to consider is the bus stop location. For the FlixBus, the stops were nowhere near where we had planned to take the train. Just one more thing to deal with.