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France transportation questions re:strike

Posted by on

Good day. So, I assumed the strikes in France would be over before my trip, but here we are, the longest strike in decades. Rats.

The transportation portion of my trip in France is: 1) "booked" ferry from Dover to Calais (Jan 5) 2) "booked"train from Calais Ville to Paris Gare du Nord (Jan 5) 3) get to "booked" hotel in Latin Quarter from Gare du Nord (late on Jan 5) 4) get to airport from Latin Quarter on AM of Jan 8 to catch "booked" KLM flight to Amsterdam.

So, my questions are:

1) Is there any possibility the strike is over before Jan 5? I see they have talks scheduled fro the 7th and a protest on the 9th. So, will it be in effect until at least the Jan 7 talks?

2) The Calais to Paris train is being cancelled most days with maybe 1-2 trains a day, on some days. So, this reservation will probably fall through. Is the tunnel train from London to Paris affected by the strikes? How about the airport? We are thinking about flying from London to Paris on the 5th as an alternative.

3) I've heard some Air France flights have been affected. Is KLM flight to Amsterdam on the 8th in danger of cancellation change due to airport strikes?

4) Is Uber pretty much the only way to get around Paris? Are the hop on hop off tour buses still operating?

Thanks in advance for any help.
-Jason

Posted by
2545 posts

  1. Probably not over with by anytime in January. The strike was originally announced with no end date.

  2. There have been some cancellations on the Eurostar but I believe that most are running on schedule. The airport has had minimal problems operationally. The RER B into Paris runs most of the time with a reduced overall schedule and may terminate at Gare du Nord.

  3. Contact the concerned airline for flight specifics. The bulk of the disruptions have been ground travel, bus and rail.

  4. Avoid Uber which has taken advantage of the situation with dynamic, surge pricing. You may not know what you are paying until you get your final bill. Use taxis and Lecab, Snapcar, Kaptan, or Bolt which are VTC´s like Uber without the exploitation (generally). Taxis around Gare du Nord are always an honesty concern.

Hop on hop off buses are operating but are never a good idea as they are very slow with infrequent service. Increased traffic in the city have made them more unreliable than they normally are. Walking is the preferred method of transportation with métros 1 and 14 in continuous operation.

Posted by
10195 posts

Jason, you are aware that the Channel crossing by ferry in January can be quite rough, Dramamine-level rough. Have you thought about flying?

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