General Strike Sept 14/15 in France per US State Dept FB feed

If anyone is travelling on those two days, this is important news.

Not everything comes to a stop during a general strike - some Metro stations will be closed, if they are close to the beginning and end of the marchers' route, or if there is a significant security risk involved in a few stations near monuments.

Buses on the route will either run on a partial route (you'll have to get off early) or will stop running during the march. Other than that, there will be no changes in schedule, other than possible delays when things get moving again.

Taxis will not be affected.

Airports and trains will operate on a reduced schedule and some flights/trains will be delayed and/or cancelled. If your train is cancelled, you can get on the next one, but might not be assured of a seat. You should stay in contact with your airlines for updates for your flight.

It's good advice to avoid the general route where the march will take place - it's a pretty short walk, and easy to avoid, since most tourists are usually busy in other neighborhoods and barricades and police will be out in force to keep order. Sometimes, there a few troublemakers, but nothing that the police can't handle.

Appreciate the notice, Pam. Thanks!

This is interesting. I didn't know anything about it - and have been out riding busses all morning. Odd that I didn't get the usual e-mail message from the Embassy about this.

I did notice one discrepancy though. The announcement makes mention of Thursday September 14th, I have to imagine that they mean Thursday September 15th.

We are in Paris now and rode the Metro twice so far. Have not noticed any slow downs or have we gotten any type of message. Where would we be getting a message from. The embassy sent an alert about Sept. 11th but no notifications other than to be careful about avoiding crowds.

I arrive on the morning of the 16th. Hopefully, they'll stick to the announced schedule.

One would receive these messages if they have signed up for the Smart Traveler Program from the US Department of State: https://step.state.gov/step/

Airports authority has asked airlines to cancel 15% of their flights tomorrow in order to be able to handle the load with reduced workstaff (due to striking air controllers).

RATP (Paris transport authority) doesn't have any announcements up on its site about any projected effects on traffic tomorrow. NOr does SNCF (national rail authority). (Although SNCF does have a warning that if the projected storms hit certain areas in the south and cccc over the next two days., service there could be affected

Unfortunately this evening there are some delays on some Paris metro and RER lines due to passenger accidents.

http://www.ratp.fr/informer/trafic/trafic.php

http://www.sncf.com/fr/prevision-trafic

Météo France a placé 3 départements du Sud-Est en vigilance orange
Orages, le Var, les Alpes-Maritimes et les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, et
7 départements en vigilance orange Pluie-Inondation : le Gard,
l'Hérault, l'Aveyron, l'Ardèche, le Vaucluse, les Bouches-du-Rhône et
la Lozère.

La circulation des trains pourrait être perturbée dans ces secteurs.

Soyez très prudent(e) lors de vos déplacements et tenez-vous
régulièrement

Météo France has placed 3 South-East departements in the "orange" warning category for storms: Var, Alpes-Maritimes, and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and 7 departements in the "orange" warning category for flooding: the Gard, the Hérault, the Aveyron, the Ardèche, the Vaucluse, the Bouches-du-Rhône, and the Lozère.

Train traffic could be disturbed in these areas.

Be prudent while traveling around and check our website regularly.

Dates for that alert are Sep 13-15.

Thanks Kim for the update and further information.

What if you are in France but not in Paris?

I just had a lovely walk down a car-free Boulevard Beaumarchais. It was interesting walking down the middle of this usually busy street. When I turned off down rue Chemin Vert a policeman started chatting, and told me not to worry. I thought that was interesting. I told hime that I wasn't worried at all and found it fascinating instead.

Yeah, well things got a little heated up around Bastille and near Republique, when the usual knuckleheads threw a few Molotov cocktails at cars, ignited terrace tables at Indiana restaurant and tore up newspaper kiosques, etc.

Again, the police jumped into action, no bystanders or marchers were injured, one policeman was ignited during the Indiana incident and is in guarded condition, and several "casseurs" were arrested.