Possible French strike on 9/21

Old Sep 17th, 2017, 07:16 AM
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Possible French strike on 9/21

Hello all,

My husband and I are have been in southern Brittany for almost 2 weeks. Currently in Trinite-sur-mer, we have TGV tickets on Thursday , Sept 21 from Rennes (train # 5280) to CDG. Our plan is to stay overnight at the airport Thursday evening before our morning departure for Boston on the 22nd.

There is a planned strike for that Thursday including unions involved in the transportation sector. We checked on the SNCF APP and so far, there is no report of any change in schedule.

Any suggestions on how to gather information? Are there particular trains, routes, times, etc. that are shared with the public? And, if so, how? We are in a quandry on how to handle this wrinkle. We have a car which we could, I guess, drive to CDC instead of Rennes if there is a strike which;would effect us. However,we really hate the idea of such a long drive and in tackling Paris traffic and chaos.

Thanks.
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Old Sep 17th, 2017, 07:50 AM
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If you google SNCF Perturbations Trafic, you will get the latest information as it becomes available for every region of the country. You can also google Cestlagreve. I'm worried about this too, as my BFF is finally coming to visit us, arriving in Bordeaux Merignac (if the planes are flying) on the morning of the 21st and needs to take a regional train to get to us.
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Old Sep 17th, 2017, 07:51 AM
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7.7% of French workers are unionized, the lowest percentage of any industrialized country in the world. But of course, you do not have to belong to a union to go on strike in France -- all it takes is accepting to have your pay docked.

There is no way to know right now who will be on strike. Workers are supposed to individually declare their intention to strike 48 hours in advance. The SNCF will announce which trains will be running 48 hours in advance as well. This is usually respected.

Not sure what your concept of "chaos" is. I have lived through at least 100 "national" strikes in France and saw what could be considered "chaos" only about 3 or 4 times. And the last time was 22 years ago.

Nevertheless, your worries are completely legitimate -- in a foreign country, you just have no idea how these things work here.
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Old Sep 17th, 2017, 07:54 AM
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Good news department: if your specific train is cancelled, you can take any other train that is running AND apply for a refund of your tickets (even if they are "non-refundable") upon arrival. Of course, there is a good chance that you might have to stand up on the train, but since Rennes is now less than 2 hours from Paris by TGV, it is not the end of the world.
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Old Sep 17th, 2017, 12:05 PM
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On a brighter note, I envy you being in La Trinite sur Mer--one of my all-time favorite places. Hope your worries about strikes don't impair your enjoyment of that wonderful town.
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Old Sep 17th, 2017, 12:08 PM
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I hope you tried that crêperie on a parallel road to the one fronting the sea.
Great.
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Old Sep 17th, 2017, 02:03 PM
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I've never seen SNCF announce changes in particular lines based on a planned strike four days away. In theory, the strike could not even happen, sometimes strikes planned months in advance don't.

I've never seen them post those type of changes far in advance at all, but my experience is limited. At least you are going the day before, I wouldn't worry about it, you should get there. I've never seen a case where no trains at all were running on a major line like that during a strike. Didn't they just have a strike a couple days ago? 1/2 to 2/3 trains were running on certain lines but most of the TGVs were not affected.

You can use this website to get latest info, by secteur
http://www.cestlagreve.fr/secteur-d-...rt/sncf-train/

This website also has info on SNCF and says it hasn't been transmitted yet about that date, but that they expected it to be similar to 12 september, which was when the TGV was hardly affected.
https://www.brundevie.com/previsions...-sncf-387.html
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Old Sep 21st, 2017, 08:50 AM
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The manif' paraded down my street today for a few hours.
It was loud, and there was a lot of damage done to property, and a few restaurants were warned to not open their terraces today.

Now it's back to normal - except for the property damage.
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Old Sep 21st, 2017, 11:45 AM
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Both the strike and the march were considered to be a flop today. Next date is 23 September (march, not strike). After that there is a truck strike on the 25th which hopes to block the refineries again until the service stations run dry.

The fact that all of the strikes are on different dates and uncoordinated is advance indication of their failure.
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Old Sep 21st, 2017, 10:26 PM
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I don't know, kerouac.
There were a whole lot of people and a whole lot of noise and property damage on my street.
Whether you consider it a failure is another thing altogether...
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Old Sep 22nd, 2017, 06:03 AM
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-f...-idUSKCN1BW1QR
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Old Sep 22nd, 2017, 11:48 AM
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I wonder if justretired got their train okay.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2017, 12:45 PM
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The trains operated normally, except for a few commuter lines in the suburbs of Paris.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2017, 03:05 AM
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Larry and I returned home last night. As Kerouac first suggested earlier in the thread and again yesterday, there was not any difficulties with the TGV. The web sites worked as indicated. We did see what we thought was a small union demonstration in Rennes when we returned the car.

Kerouac, you calmed us down enormously, so thank you and the rest of you who were successful in alleviating our worries.

We will write a trip report when we get settled in, but here are a few comments. First of all, for those of you who are using the Rennes train station, keep in mind that there is ongoing construction. This makes finding car rental offices a bit more difficult than normal; this applies to both picking up the car next to the station and returning it back at the end of your vacation. Google maps or your car GPS will not be current, so get exact directions from the car rental before you head out. We had particular trouble returning the car because of the construction and possibly the additional road closure for the strike.

Julie, we loved Trinite-sur- mer and was happy you had recommended it. We could not book your hotel, but did locate the Tinite hotel, near the restaurant, the Petit Chantier, about a half mile away and on the port. The hotel was a small, family run lovely inn, with skilled and very pleasant hosts, which we will rate highly. More when we write our report.

again, thank you. We had a great vacation, and, as always, Fodorites were generous and helpful in our planning and again, at the last minute, when we started to panic about the strike.

Happy and safe travels.
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