I will be in Paris on the 13th and have heard that there is a strike planned for that day. I was planning on going to Versailles that day - should I re-arrange my schedule and plan to do things that are within walking distance of my hotel? Would this effect the RER, Metro, buses, etc? Thanks for any info available.
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Have not heard of that strike (yet?) and do not know what would be involved. Waling is best when a strike is going on. Versailles will be there next day.
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I was in Paris for the last strike last week (May 26th) and didn%26#39;t notice any difference in train service. I only traveled on the Metro, but I did so with great frequency that day with many transfers and didn%26#39;t even notice a delay.
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I was there on the 26th as well. The Metro seemed to be running normally, but Versailles was closed that day. There was a notice to that effect posted in the SNCF ticket office at the Invalides RER station. The strike may or may not take place that day....but I would be prepared with alternate plans if you intend to go to Versailles,
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The word %26quot;strike%26quot; has not been used thus far. They were saying a %26quot;labor action%26quot; -- which may or may not mean a strike.
It doesn%26#39;t seem to be gearing up to be much impact -- first, it%26#39;s scheduled for a Saturday -- most actual strikes are held during the week, when they can inconvenience and irk as many people as possible. Hard to do when most people aren%26#39;t using public transport because they%26#39;re not working. Second, it%26#39;s not being publicized at all -- it%26#39;s not on the news, the websites - so it%26#39;s not a big coordinated effort amongst the unions.
In contrast, the last big one in March was publicized all over the Ile de France region -- on the tele news, on the radio, on the transport websites, and in the newspaper -- and with four-color glossy flyers posted many places.
The last one, on May 26, was barely a wrinkle in the day of Paris -- all transport lines were running at 50% or more of usual capacity -- most at 75%-100%, so some of the trains were full, but everybody got where they needed to be without significant incident.
Versailles WAS open on 26 May, by the way -- apparently you couldn%26#39;t get the audio guides or take a guided tour, but we never figured out if that was because the employees were on a sympathy strike, or if they just couldn%26#39;t get to work (I%26#39;m leaning toward just taking the opportunity to grab a day off).
It would seem that this is going to be demonstrations, marches in the streets, etc -- and won%26#39;t be a significant impact on transport. I don%26#39;t even pretend, however, to know what the French unions are planning.
If you%26#39;re worried, keep that day and a %26#39;local walking%26#39; day flexible...then you can swap them last minute if you need to.
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There%26#39;s still nothing on any of the news sites, nor in the media about it.
I had a few minutes to Google %26quot;greve 13 juin 2009%26quot; -- and all I could find -- even on the labor unions%26#39; own websites%26quot; -- is that it will be a %26quot;day of great events%26quot; -- but what little information there is indicates that it will be demonstrations, rather than stoppages.
This makes sense -- if you%26#39;re not going to strike, you still need to work during the week, so you have demonstrations on the weekends.
These aren%26#39;t picket lines, by the way -- this is people walking through the streets with bullhorns, teeshirts, banners...a demonstration.
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We were there on May 26th too...some metro lines and stations were crowded but nothing else. We wanted to go to Versailles on that day but moved it to another day...just to be sure.
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