We have a trip planned to Paris from December 15 through the 17th. We are staying in Montmartre, and we are planning on spending a couple days in Paris. We are worried about the strikes that are to begin on Thursday. Any advice? Thank you.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14030 posts
Be sure you keep up with this thread.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/paris-france-december-transport-strike-fyi
Ashley and others who are on the ground in Paris are keeping it up to date.
My take is that you will sort of have to wait and see what happens after this weekend.
Posted by
New York, NY
4008 posts
Why waste time worrying about something you cannot control if you are going to Paris no matter what? It is a fact of life over there. The strike will now be part of your experiential travel so finding a way to do what you want to do will be part of the travel stories you share. Try to find a bright side to this.
Public transportation strikes are legal there so just go with the flow and perhaps seek the advice of the people running your hotel or B&B.
Posted by
Rural Georgia
2119 posts
There's an ongoing thread started by a Parisian. It has all the latest information. That would be a good place to start.
Right now, there's no way to know what the effect of the strike will be during your planned time. However, it looks like this will be a major strike and I think there will be at best some inconvenience then.
Where will you be coming from and going to? All of France will be affected. I hope it works out. Our grandson is at Tours University and scheduled to fly home for Christmas December 23.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
We will be taking a train from Mannheim on the SNCF to Paris EST. I'm most worried about getting to Paris. Thank you for all of the quick responses and the links to watch.
Posted by
29 posts
I'm going to be in Paris around that time arriving on the Eurostar from London. If the strikes stop that train we're going to stay in England a few extra days. Will be a bummer but it is what it is. Hopefully pre-booked hotels would give us a refund.
But I'm optimistic something will get worked out by then. And if not.... well c'est la vie.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
We have never been to Paris and were looking forward to visiting the beautiful city and their amazing Christmas markets. I cannot complain because we are spending the rest of our time in Germany and visiting their wonderful Christmas markets as well. I will give it a few more days and just keep updated with the posts from Ashley. Thank you AshleyMIA (Paris) for keeping us updated. If it doesn't work out this time, we will definitely plan another trip to Paris. I just hope they are able to come to a resolution that everyone can be happy with. I hate to see all of those workers out of work for a long period of time.
Posted by
Panguitch, Utah
2552 posts
were looking forward to visiting the beautiful city and their amazing Christmas markets.
I would not characterize the Christmas markets in Paris as amazing. The city has done what they can to eradicate them as the markets were typically only selling cheap goods imported from China. The only market in Paris is now located in the northeast corner of les Tuileries. There also remains a few isolated stands throughout the city selling hot drinks and a few handcrafted goods. Perhaps the largest of the markets is at la Défense on the west end of the métro 1 line.
Posted by
Paris
9667 posts
What Tocard said. If it’s amazing Christmas markets you want, you are better off staying in Germany than coming to Paris.