I just read about the possibility of an air traffic controller strike Oct 7-10 in Paris. My husband and I are scheduled to fly out of CDG airport on Oct 9 after spending several days in Normandy.
It appears that there are limited available flights out of Paris on Oct 10 and 11, if we decided to delay our departure.
We are considering changing our flight to depart from London.
If we do this, would trains from Normandy to London be affected since these trains go through Paris?
How long should we wait before rescheduling?
TIA
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
9596 posts
Trains should run during an air controllers strike. They even ran during a train strike last week, although with limited service for the train strike.
If you decide to take Eurostar to London, be aware that prices go up the closer you get to the date of departure. We bought our tickets a few months in advance for around $58 each. We checked the walk up price on the day of departure and it was around $300.
Posted by
Lake District, England
10476 posts
What I would do from Normandy as a matter of course (irrespective of whether the internal French trains or Eurostar are affected by the strike) would be to take the overnight Brittany Ferries sailing from Ouistreham (the port of Caen) to Portsmouth. At Portsmouth Ferry port that connects directly with a National Express bus to London (the bus leaves from the front door of the port).
Other Nat Ex buses that day from Portsmouth Harbour (not the ferry port) run direct to Heathrow.
That route is actually cheaper than train via Paris, pretty much any time even including your cabin on the ship.
The other route to Heathrow from Portsmouth is very frequent train from Portsmouth Harbour to Woking (not London) then Rail-Air or normal hourly city bus from Woking Railway Station to Heathrow.
This week Eurostar was unaffected by the strike, and there were at least some French domestic trains on that route. There is no current notification of a French domestic rail strike that day.