Anna1013

My two friends are currently in Paris and have planned to visit Versailles this coming Wednesday. I looked at thelocal.fr and it said that the RER C will be the most affected, and only 2 out of every 3 trains will be operating on Wed/Thurs.

My friends have never traveled to Europe or Paris before and I have been trying to keep updated to the current situation to make travel to Versailles as easy as possible for them.

Will they be able to get on the RER C trains to Versailles easily or should I tell them to change their visit to another day?

Christina

I think that article was about this past week's trains when it said 2/3 RER C, it was dated May 25th, and that is about what the effect was this week. So it's hard to say from that what it will be like on June 1st and 2nd. So they may not update the article on this Wednesday for this week, but they are calling for more strikes beginning of June, anyway. So I'm guessing it will be affected somewhat although it wasn't much on RER D.

I think it's hard to say at this point with certainty. And the union wants strikes every day from June 1st, I believe, so cahnging to another day may not do any good. If they could just as easily go Tuesday, that might be best idea (5/31), as it is closed Monday.

Christina

oh, I always use RATP's own website for traffic info, but if you can't read French, that may not work. Here is the page

http://www.ratp.fr/informer/trafic/manifestations.php

Anna1013

Christina - thanks so much for your reply. I didn't realize they were calling for more strikes beginning June. Would they only update information about June strikes on June 1st?

They could switch what was planned on Tuesday(Notre Dame, Conciergerie, visiting Ile Saint Louis) to Wednesday instead and visit Versailles on Tuesday.

It seems like Versailles also has fountains operating on Tuesdays during that time. They have the Paris Museum Pass - does that mean that if they go on Tuesday they now have to pay to enter the gardens?

hpeabody

The french strike ruined my enjoyment of Versailles. First the train delay, then the Versailles employees did not open the gates making us wait outside for 2-3 hours while they had their own meeting to decide if they were going to open at all that day. Then when the gates opened it was like a flood of people so you could not move about. I had paid for the extra Garden thing and only got outside for a few short minutes so I really did not get to experience that Garden thing.

My advice is RE-SCHEDULE that day and go to Versailles another day. DO NOT GO when there is a strike.

Anna1013

Yes I am telling them to go to Versailles on Tuesday instead.

Christina - thanks for the link. Do you know what it means in French? They are staying at a hotel so I told them to ask the front desk to explain what the site says in English.

StCirq

<<Christina - thanks for the link. Do you know what it means in French?>>

Right now it says there are no disruptions on the line, but it's Sunday and who knows what it will say tomorrow? You'll have to monitor it frequently if you really want to deal with this - why not let your friends work this out on their own? If you don't speak/read French, I don't really see how much help you can be to them that their hotel concierge can't help with.