Strike update and some thoughts

Thanks for the first hand update. Good for you to venture out into the smaller towns and enjoy as best you can despite the frustrations.

Supposed to be flying our Thursday with 5 of my students. Tomorrow there's a strike--they say mostly affecting Orly----but I'm nervous as hell.

Tomorrow is Thursday which is one of the main strike days. You should assume that there will be no trains. Not sure about the RER.

Plan to travel on Friday - Monday and you should be OK.

Thanks for the update. I altered my plans a bit by hitting the rails on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday. Hopefully this will avoid most of the headaches. Most of my trip this year is by car, so thanks also for the Waze tip. I'll add a review it my trip report but I'm not really planning to speed - unless being chased.

Hodor.

There are frequent strikes in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, as well as in Greece, Spain, Italy...just about everywhere people are unhappy for some reason.
Well - maybe not in Canada.
That the strikes occur during holiday season is an attempt for their causes to be noticed.
It's a yearly thing, and if you can avoid travelling during May through September, and again during the Christmas holidays, you'll avoid a lot of trouble.
Remember, it's not just tourists who are inconvenienced - people can't get to work or school, either.

I'm in Paris and having a good time. I did decide not to go to Reims today but there's plenty to do here

Checking in from the Dordogne: plenty of gasoline and diesel avaiable here--and small villages to visit.

This link on the SNCF website (in French, the equivalent information does not seem to be available on the English version of the website) shows what do to if your train is affected.

(well first, type in the number of your train here to see if it's cancelled, delayed, etc.):
http://www.sncf.com/fr/horaires-info-trafic

Anyway, back to your options if your train is cancelled:
http://www.sncf.com/fr/echange-remboursement-tgv-intercites

UTILISATION DE VOTRE TITRE DE TRANSPORT À BORD D’UN TGV OU D’UN
INTERCITÉS Si votre train est supprimé et que vous souhaitez maintenir
votre voyage, sachez que votre titre de transport est valable sur tout
autre train de la même relation, du mardi 24 mai dès le premier train,
au vendredi 27 mai 12H, sans surcoût mais sans garantie de place
assise.

"UTILIZATION OF YOUR TICKET ON BOARD A TGV OR INTERCITIES TRAIN"
"If your train is cancelled and you still want to travel, know that your ticket is good for any other train making the same voyage, from the first train on Tuesday May 24th through Friday May 27th at noon, without additional cost, but without a guaranteed seat."

ANNULER VOS BILLETS TGV ET INTERCITÉS

Si vous décidez de renoncer à votre voyage, vous pouvez obtenir le
remboursement de votre billet, dans le cadre de LA GARANTIE VOYAGE.
Pour cela, il vous suffit de vous rendre en gare, dans une boutique
SNCF, dans votre agence de voyages agréée SNCF ou d’appeler le 3635
(0,40 euro TTC/mn hors surcoût éventuel de votre opérateur). Cette
procédure est sans frais et concerne tous vos billets, quel que soit
leur tarif. Vous disposez de 60 jours après votre date de voyage pour
l’effectuer.

Nouveau : sachez que vous pouvez désormais réaliser cette opération,
avant votre départ, en ligne, pour les détenteurs d’un e-billet, (sur
Voyages-sncf.com ou auprès de votre agence en ligne agréée SNCF) et en
gare, sur les bornes libre-service (hors Prem’s).

CANCEL YOUR TGV OR INTERCITIES TICKETS

"If you decide not to travel, you can be reimbursed for your ticket, in the framework of the VOYAGE GUARANTEE. To do this, you need to either go to the station, to an SNCF boutique, or to call (from within France) 3635 (at the cost of .40 euro cents a minute in addition to whatever your operator charges for the call). This procedure does not have a charge and applies to all your tickets, no matter what class they are/price you paid. You have 60 days after your journey date to do this.

New: Please note that you can also effect this operation, before your departure, on line, if you hold an e-billet (e-ticket), on Voyages-sncf.com or with your travel agency if it is an agreed operator with SNCF) and in stations, at the self-service ticket machines (except for Prem's tickets)."

I thInk I'll run out of characters here, so I'll put the third option in a new reply.

And the last option during the rail strike:

ÉCHANGER
VOS BILLETS TGV
ET INTERCITÉS

Si vous décidez de reporter votre voyage, vous pouvez procéder à un
échange de votre billet, sans frais et sans surcoût, dans le cadre de
LA GARANTIE VOYAGE. Pour cela, rendez-vous en gare, en boutique SNCF,
dans votre agence de voyages agréée SNCF ou appelez le 3635 (0,40 euro
TTC/mn hors surcoût éventuel de votre opérateur). Cela concerne tous
vos billets, quel que soit leur tarif, dans les limites des tarifs
disponibles. Votre billet est échangeable pour un nouveau voyage
jusqu’au 28 mai inclus. Pour un report de votre voyage au-delà du 28
mai, vous pourrez être amené à régler la différence de prix
éventuelle.

"EXCHANGE YOUR TGV OR INTERCITIES TICKETS"

"If you decide to delay your voyage, you can proceed to an exchange of your ticket, without extra fees, in the framework of the VOYAGE GUARANTEE. To do this, go to a station, to an SNCF boutique, in your travel agency that has an agreement with SNCF, or call (from within France) 3635 (40 euros cents a minute for the call, plus whatever your operator charges).

This concerns any and all of your tickets, no matter what class/price you purchased them at, in the limit of available prices. Your ticket is exchangeable for a new trip up to and including May 28. If you would like to delay your trip beyond May 28, you may need to pay any eventual difference in ticket price."

Many thanks, Kim, for that info, links and translations. Any idea how the Paris-London Eurostar might be affected? For example, if booked on the Eurostar and your connecting SNCF train (on a separate ticket) is strike- affected, is your Eurostar ticket still valid for travel on a later train?

Hi CGRichard - That's a good question. I haven't seen anything that addresses a French train/Eurostar link (so far, Eurostar trains have not been affected).

I think in your case you could reach out via Twitter to the Eurostar staff, they're there answering questions during the day (Europe time).

Thanks, Kim for the info which I've saved it for later reference.
We fortunately didn't have any problems with trains last week on the 16, 17, 19 and 22 May and usually had on-time arrivals. We did reserve a car through Europcar for the 19th but were able to cancel it since the strike wasn't beginning until 20:00.

Update for Thursday.

Toulouse expects protests throughout the city today.

There are some trains running here.

Due to the risk of being cut off on a day trip via train we decided to rent a car.

We have not seen the protests, but we have been sitting in traffic for 2.5 hours while trying to get out of the city. Clearly something is going on.

Best advice is to rent a velo and tour the canal du midi.

The train protests are over unsuitable "working conditions". Translation: raising the standard workweek above 35 hours. While this seems laughable, unemployment is high here and increasing the workweek will exacerbate this problem. But, France has to compete with its neighbors in the EU who work longer hours and run more efficient operations.

I hope they figure it out. France can't compete in the global marketplace like this.

Thanks, Kim. I don't have access to Twitter but my SNCF-Eurostar connection is on 25 June, probably too far ahead now - given the volatility of the situation - to ascertain what may apply then. My bookings were all made through Loco2.com, and I found this reassurance on their help page

If you are a Loco2 customer and we receive specific information about
your booked train from the rail operator, we will contact you.

This page on their site gives helpful general information about the May strikes and I expect it will be updated in due course re the strikes in June.

Kim, thank you for the detailed update.
We are in France from June 3 to June 7. We fly in to CDG from Berlin and rent a car to drive to Normandy. We board the Eurostar to London on Tuesday June 7.
Do you know if airport workers are on strike?
Is there a good English language website that provides updates on where / when the strikes happen? It seems that different cities have different dates for planned protests.

Found this on this site

French Airport Strike Several unions involved, high participation of
workers expected. Friday 3 June 2016 Saturday 4 June 2016 Sunday 5
June, 2016

Yes, Unfortunately as CGICHARD has pointed out, airline/airport workers plan a strike exactly when you're supposed to arrive - June 3-5.

We just returned from a trip that included renting a car to drive through Normandy and Brittany and Loire Valley. We had no clue of the gasoline strike and wondered why we kept seeing such long gas station lines. Then when we needed fuel we couldn't even find any open stations! Fortunately we were not on empty and finally found a station on the highway with fuel which you could only by 20 L at a time.

I will remember this when planning future trips to Europe. I'm not a fan of most bus tours, but they would certainly be better in this situation-unless they're unable to get gas. Terrorist incidents in France wouldn't prevent me from planning a trip to France but .these intentional efforts of French people to disrupt transportation for a significant period of time would make me less likely to visit France.

John - Your remarks are much appreciated as we will arrive in Marseille in about 10 days. We go to France every year for a month and it always seems like we are barely missing being effected by a strike. Things are not looking so good this year. It is incredible how screwed up things are in France, much like Greece was a few years ago. The French government comes up with what seems like some sensible labor policies to reduce unemployment, the public rejects these policies by 60% majority in a national referendum and the governments persists in implementing these policies anyway. I don't believe that the attitudes of the general public in France are going to change any time soon.

Hi John - What's this national referendum of which you speak in which the French voted against the Hollande government's proposed labor law?

I can't recall hearing about anything like that. The last time the French had a referendum was in 2005, in regard to whether to sign on to the then draft European constitution (they did reject it) but that's a completely different issue and a long time ago.

Also CGICHARD - I should correct what I said earlier. Air traffic controllers have filed a MOTION to strike on June 3-5 - however, they will wait to decide WHETHER to strike on May 31, after a meeting with French civil aviation authorities. So we'll know more on Tuesday. Maybe they will get what they want and decide that the strike isn't necessary (I kind of doubt that, but at least it's a possibility).