Warning! Paris RER B trains to/from CDG not running weekends through Nov 7

Another thing to keep in mind... I will be leaving for Paris in two weeks and my coworker, who is from Paris, told me to be prepared from strikes. He said that there will be strikes during the month of October, in response to the change in the retirement age. I've learned that when traveling in France, it is best to have a backup plan, anyway. Nobody strikes better (or more often) than the French! Has anyone else heard anything about upcoming strikes?

Thanks David. I am glad now that we chose to arrive and leave on week day. Especially the Friday departure!

Ugh. I'm going to be arriving in Paris on a Sunday after 12 1/2 hours of flying and layovers. I can't sleep on planes. Sounds like I might be better off taking a taxi to my hotel?

JUDEY, you might also consider the Roissy Bus and then Metro to your Hotel OR one of the Paris Shuttle services, as that would be much less expensive than a Taxi. Happy travels!

Judey- As Ken stated, the Roissy-Bus or Air France Bus will get you into Paris. Both are discussed in Rick's book. From there, a short cab or Metro ride would get you to your hotel. I read over the shuttle service that the RER is providing (in the link I posted above), but I just can't comment on if it would be convenient or not. There are lots of options, but I just didn't want folks to be surprised about the RER being down on weekends. Have a wonderful trip to Paris! Dave

Yeah, I would pretty much be taking the RER-B the whole way (I think) to get to my hotel because it's in the Luxembourg Gardens area. I know taxis are spendy, I was just thinking about how tired I'm going to be and having this construction thing add 30 mins-hour to the commute does not sound fun. Of course, I don't really know what I'm talking about; I haven't even figured out exactly how I would get to my hotel under normal circumstances.

It's been my experience that, whenever the RER/metro dies, they load up the route with surface buses that run the same route, making stops at the same stations. It shouldn't be that much of a problem.

David - in my haste to think we were "safe", I just realized that we actually arrive in Paris on Sunday, October 24th so we will be affected, like Judey, after a very long flight. I read the link you provided - thank you again - but notice that it tends to refer to folks going out to the airport rather than arriving and trying to get downtown to their hotel. Do you have any information about where one goes at the airport in order to catch the shuttle bus to get downtown now that the train isn't running?

Hi Gordon- I've seen posted elsewhere that the RER B is indeed affected both to and from CDG over those weekends. But I agree- it is a little fuzzy on the wording. I apologize I don't know where the buses pick up, having only done the RER. Perhaps somebody can chime in? Dave

Linda-Just based on what I've read in the news, they are thinking about doing another one-day strike at some point. However, it's unlikely that a massive, multi-day or week strike would happen because the workers know that it is very unlikely that they will get what they want. Again, just what I've read, not claiming to be an authority on the issue.

We were just in Paris this past Thursday ( 09/16) and tried going from Gare Nord to CDG after 11:00 PM. The RER "B" did not go to CDG but at the last stop before the "split" to Mitry Clay( I think the stop was Aulney-sous-Bois) we simply got off the train and boarded a bus (proivided by the RER and free with our train ticket) that then took us directly to the Terminal 1 station. A little scary at first becuase we were unsure of what we were doing but, after we simply followed the "locals", everything went fine.

I just got back today. We arrived in Paris two Sundays ago and bought tickets like we planned to take the RER B to Paris. However, we had to take the tram to another terminal (from terminal 2) to catch a bus. I can't remember what terminal, but they will tell you when you buy your ticket. The bus will take you to the train. It was pretty efficient [INVALID] the buses run continually. It added about half an hour to the trip. On the way back today, we caught the train at Luxembourg Gardens. You take the train to Mitry Clare (not sure I've spelled that correctly), where you will catch a bus. It is very efficient; the buses run constantly, but I will say it seemed like it took forever to get to the airport. We left our hotel at 7 am, which was four hours before our departure time (11 am). We needed every bit of that time as the trip to the airport took close to two hours (including walking a couple of blocks to Luxembourg Gardens) and the security lines at CDG were hideous. Definitely leave at least four hours if you chose to go this route.