Prepare for unrest??

We are going to Paris and more of France in April and are very conflicted about the news. It sounds better today but we are watching these news sites in English carefully. We also have train tickets out of Paris. We do have full trip insurance bought within 14 days of the start of making our plans.
We might just skip Paris and head out to our other locations from CDG in a rental car. Originally, we were skipping Paris this time anyway and our main reason to go there is to recover from jet lag before driving.
Here are some English language news sites in France:
france24.com, lemonde.fr , the local.fr

It is easy to avoid protests; you see riot police standing by and disturbance ahead and you turn and walk the other way. protesting is the French national sport and they are adept at managing it. It is really not a risk to a tourist unless they chose to participate.

For train cancellations read up on how to rebook -- that is probably the greatest risk but something you can work around. We have trains from Paris to Amsterdam and AMsterdam to Berlin and both have been affected by strike closures -- fingers crossed. These things are usually announced a day or two in advance which gives one a chance to rebook or work around.

I recommend besides this forum and the extremely good advice given here by frequent travelers and residents of France, that you sign up for newsletters from RS Guide Vero. I got one of her newsletters this AM although I do not see it up yet on her website as a blog post or on her FB page as a post. https://francewithvero.com/

Here is how her email starts out:

This is not the monthly newsletter I had envisioned, but current events in my homeland (and messages in my inbox) prompted me to write this instead.

This feels strangely familiar. (Some) violence occurs. French then international media relay the news en boucle (endlessly) and scare the living daylights out of travelers, who are too far away to tell what's true or not. Quel dommage.

Remember mass hysteria after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015? I do. Remember mass hysteria after the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris? I do. Remember mass hysteria after the July 14, 2016 terror attack in Nice? I do.

Those were gruesome, tragic events and I am not trying to make light of them.

Fear is a force to be reckoned with. I could point out that in other parts of the world, many have reasons to be afraid when they step outside and head to their local supermarket. They would reply they still go about their daily lives.

As do the French right now, in Paris and beyond.

One thing at least is true: There's social unrest in France this spring, and there's sure been a lot of trash accumulating along Parisian sidewalks (though as of March 29, the situation might improve.) Note that most demonstrations like the ones in my city, Tours, have been running without incidents.

I'd be happy to forward her email to you if you want to PM me your email address!

I also just got a similar newsletter from Bonjour Paris which echos Vero's information.

https://bonjourparis.com/practical-information/travel-during-the-paris-protests-whats-it-really-like-in-the-city/?utm_source=Bonjour+Paris&utm_campaign=07cb3fcb4c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_07_02_50_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_306bdf7563-07cb3fcb4c-294446741&mc_cid=07cb3fcb4c&mc_eid=0d64f100a8

I am trying to give myself flex days and not schedule anything too closely. As long as you are not trying to get back to CDG the day you fly out you will probably be OK. I am risk averse anyway and want to get back to my departure city 2 days before, lol. but that is me!

Our time frame is similar to Susan and Monte and we are headed to Bordeaux as well. We’re not worried about the situation in Paris as we were there in 2019 during the Jaune Gilets demonstrations and found it easy to avoid the areas impacted. The protest routes were posted in advance and the police presence let you know to find another route. Having experienced this before makes us much calmer this trip.
What I am doing is trying to prepare if adjustments need to be made for the trip to Bordeaux. I have downloaded the SNCF app for alerts and I’ll make sure the SNCF ticket sales offices are still where they used to be if we need to reschedule. I could probably do it on our phones, but sometimes an actual person is nice. We have built in a little extra time to get to Bordeaux if necessary, although we’re a little tighter than usual. We’ll also make sure we know of any demonstrations the day we head out to allow for extra time in getting to the station. I think I’ll also scout a hotel or two in Bordeaux if we need to leave Paris a day early.
I follow “France with Vero” and “Earful Tower” for helpful info.

Thank you! Very helpful!

Jay Swanson (American expat in Paris) did a video about this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnnT0qwIo-4&themeRefresh=1

and Les Frenchies (she's American, he's French, they're in France after decades in the US) posted on their FB page that they supported what Jay said and found the exact same thing.

Regardless, I fly there in 2 weeks and I'm not cancelling; if I get 'stuck' and have to extend my visit... oh, darn...

I clearly remember the two horrendous terrorist events of 2015, that of January and November, above all, the huge demonstrations in defiance in the Place de la Republique, very fitting site historically. The French certainly have a unique sense of history gathering at that site as they are doing currently in defying the government....bravo !

I followed closely those events in 2015 on TV5, CNN and the BBC. In late May of 2015 I flew off to Paris from SFO, regardless, as 2015 was the bicentennial.

We’ve been in France since 03/24, will be here through April 8. Landed CDG: have been in Chartres, Bordeaux, now Toulouse, next Cahors and then Paris.
- it’s not the least bit dangerous. During the big protest in Bordeaux on Tuesday we just avoided the demonstration route. There were a lot of cops around but 95% of the city was going about its business even at the height of the protest. If there’s a big demo on, ask a local to tell you the route and go somewhere else. Like, four blocks away from the action is enough.

— we had planned to travel by train. So far, all our intercity trains have been cancelled, about 40 hours before time. It’s easy enough to rent a car, and one of us is comfortable driving. It’s a PIA: if we’d planned to drive I’d have arranged a totally different itinerary. I also really hate the fact that driving uses 100x more fossil fuel. So, it’s a bummer in that sense, but we’ve driven on the excellent roads and eaten in the excellent rest stops, which are perfectly clean and have fabulous food.

• Local transit, like RER IN Paris and Bordeaux street cars, has been running normally. I think RER was disrupted the day before we arrived.

-immigration entry at CDG was Extremely Slow, surely an industrial action, with thousands waiting to get through four open booths. Consider snacks, water, something to read.

I suggest you not worry for a moment about basic safety, but think about having a plan B for any train trips. By May the trains may well be fine, but who knows. You’ll be okay.
(We still hope our upcoming trains will go as planned. Only Some trains are cancelled. It’s a roll of the dice.)
MB

Is there unrest throughout France? Do we need to be on alert in
Dordogne

During the last day of protest on March 28, there were 3 demonstrations in the Dordogne in the 3 major towns.
Périgueux, Bergerac, and Sarlat-la-Canéda
A total of about 7800 people.

No incidents in the three cities.

The Dordogne has returned to its usual March frenzy with the presentation of medals to local craftsmen, choir performances in retirement homes and its ducks crushed by agricultural tractors.

We have been in Paris for 3 days now. There has been no impact whatsoever on our touring. We’re staying in the 5th. There were some garbage piles when we arrived and some were pretty big but they don’t impact anything we see or do. A lot of the bigger piles near us were cleaned up by mid-day today.

The city is lively and full of tourists. We’ve done the D’Orsay, Petite Palais, the city modern art museum, the Shoah Memorial, the Arab Institute, a river cruise, the Sewer Museum…all of this on foot - and we’ve come across nothing out of the ordinary.

valerie, your resorption is very encouraging. We were considering canceling the Paris part of our trip which we planned to visit to get over jet lag before driving.

I subscribe to David Lebovitz's newsletter - he's an American who has been living in Paris for 20 years. Today he had a section about strikes.

Since my husband and I are going to take the TGV from CDG to Reims in late May to the the start of our Best of Eastern France tour I found this link on SNCF and Strikes quite interesting:

https://www.sncf.com/en/booking-itinerary/traffic/news/strikes

Bottom line:
Every day at 17.00, the SNCF app releases an update on all the trains for the following day.

And https://www.cestlagreve.fr/ lists the strikes by date.

The idea of a strike and missing our train to Bordeaux, and then back to France arriving late before our flight home does make me nervous!

What do you do when your accommodations are in place and your train doesn’t go? Then you’d be homeless for a night? Or, you bail out of your reservation a day early and rent a car and find an additional accommodation?

I subscribe to Rosa Jackson’s monthly newsletter. She lives in Nice, and says the protests and marches have all been peaceful, some with music and floats. She says it looks like Carnevale in Nice!

She also mentioned that, despite the reactions to potentially raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, most French still won’t be able to retire until age 67. She said a lot of the reaction is not what was said by the government, but how it was said. No violence or disturbances in Nice.

The idea of ​​a strike and missing our train to Bordeaux, and then
back to France arriving late before our flight home does make me
nervous!

Don't worry, according to your previous messages, your Paris Bordeaux trip will be on Saturday June 3.
It's in 2 months!

I am not a diviner but I would be surprised if there are still demonstrations and national strikes every week on early June.

My daughter has been traveling throughout France for the past three months without any problems. She did see a riot response troupe mobilize, she simply went a different direction. Her dad went to visit her a few weeks back in mid March and he ended up having to fly in to visit versus being able to use the high speed train (coming in Schengen). I understand a couple of the local stations were closed and they would have to walk a bit further to the next one. I'm planning to visit her in May and so far, we are not considering a change to our plans.

"The city is lively and full of tourists." If so, that tells me these tourists currently over there are not being deterred from going by the inconvenience of protests, strikes, etc. They are in a salient moment of French history.

Odds are that my planned train routes and connections in May will be delayed or canceled, etc., causing me a certain degree of
inconvenience, disrupting my travel plans in France, etc, etc but then so what? . I'll just have to work around those , tax my creative imagination in tailoring alternative train routes.

Going April 27th to have Paris in May - can't wait. Do appreciate all the information!

I was very nervous seeing posts as this is our first visit. We have not seen any protesters the city is beautiful people are so friendly no garbage and having an awesome time. There is a strike Thursday and we plan to stay out of the area but again we are having an amazing time and feel very safe. Enjoy your trip !

My wife and I just got back yesterday after being in Paris from 28 Mar to 4 April. We stayed in a hotel near rue Cler until 1 Apr, when we shifted to an AirBnB just north of Les Halles. We walked practically every day, everywhere, with some trips on the Metro and one RER trip on Wed the 29th to Versailles. We took a taxi from CDG to our hotel, Uber to shift lodging location, and a limo service when we left (we were with our daughter, son-in-law, and our two small grandsons at that point).

We honestly couldn't have told there was all that unrest. We saw one demonstration near the Louvre which was pretty uneventful and didn't deter us from the tour we took that morning. But we also saw a lot of police now and then. But we never felt unsafe. Frankly, I was more worried about pickpockets and getting run over by bikes/scooters/motorcycles/cars/buses/etc.

Lots of Americans there on Spring Break, including lots of student groups.

I monitored this site before we left, checked with the hotel, looked at some French media, and heard from a friend of our daughter's. Once we were there we talked to the hotel manager. General response: don't worry about it. It's not that big a deal. Strikes are generally planned and known, and unless you like to wander in sketchy locations late at night (I'm an early to bed person), you'll be fine.

One final thought: if you absolutely want to be somewhere at a particular time, say, to the airport, then consider taking a taxi or a hired car. Save the public transportation for when you are more relaxed and flexible. But that's true of Boston too, where I live.

So I went the first week in March. Before I went, I heard all these things about how they were going to be these big protests and it was the strike that was going to renew every day so you know they’ll be no transport etc. etc. etc. Actual impact on my vacation - minimal. we did take a cab one day instead of waiting on the bus but that was more because it was pouring rain and we were cold

It’s very easy to avoid the protest, and even if you run into them unlike in the United States, they won’t be people carrying AK-47s to shoot at you. (That’s what we have fot Atlanta protests)

I’d go back in a minute unfortunately I have this thing called a job and I just can’t get away

(But it does look like I might have a business trip that will allow me a few days in Paris at the end of May hmm,.,,,,, maybe I should start discouraging people from going. Oh wait, it’s going to be terrifying. It’s scary, there’s protests you just need to stay home. 😂).

If it's scary plus being terrifying , all happening in Paris, that enough incentive to go. It's time to go to be there in a moment of history.

I am not sure what's Scary or terrifying besides the media hype? I was being sarcastic :) LOL!

We were just there for a week only in Paris and we had no issues at all. There was a protest one day they were marching and we encountered it while shopping people were kind we just let it pass and were on our way. I was so worried before going and it was all for nothing. Go and enjoy your time

We'll be there end of May as well and also have train tickets to Bordeaux. We'll actually be flying into London, Eurostar to Paris for a few days, train to Bordeaux, car rental for a week, then flight Bordeaux to London for 2 nights before flying home. The train tickets and that last flight Bdx to London have me a bit on edge. All have time where a delay won't cost us an international flight... but I still don't relish the headache. That train to Bordeaux is on Saturday of a bank holiday weekend... I don't know whether the holiday makes a strike cancellation less likely, or if it makes it more difficult to rebook in the case of a cancellation.