It's on and growing

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009...um-Strike.html

The Louvre remained open on December 2, but reduced staff meant that some rooms were not open.>

A few years back in a similar staff shortage due to a strike the Louvre i believe just quit taking tickets and opened the doors to all, free - wonder if that were the case yesterday at the Louvre?

silver lining?

What happens to a multi-day Paris Museum Pass when most museums turn up on strike?

nothing happens to it, the pass conditions say there are no refunds for things like that, including strikes or holidays or regular closures

The Louvre contains billions of euros of artworks. If there are not enough guards and other employees, they are not going to let people wander around at will in all of the rooms. Would you?

Well kerouac i am nearly 100% sure that i read that that did happen at the Louvre - maybe it was only a shortage of ticket takers or sellers? different unions perhaps?

Anyway, the Louvre is now closed.

My ex-wife and mother of my son and good friend just retired as a librarian and thus a civil servant and i think she typifies the French civil servant - she realizes that benefits promised cannot be paid unless there are more young people continuing to pay into the system to support the legions of folks now retiring - yet she is agap with any suggestion that civil servants must, due to circumstances, scale back their demands and accept reality - what they have now, unfortunately IMO, cannot continue forever and some adjustment must be made. But it does seem that civil servant unions are recalcitrant to acknowledge reality and thus i predict more and more strikes in the public sector - indeed even more because there have been a plethora of such strikes ever since i began going to France in 1969

In any case, as of Friday morning, the strike is gaining ground.

WRT to the Paris Museum and Monuments Pass: if you have one and haven't used it yet, you can save it for another time. When they give it to you, there is no date written on it. The first time you use it to enter a museum, the staff will write the date on it, and the pass starts working from that day. There's no other expiration of the pass, as far as I can tell.

So, if you have an unused pass, you can try to wait it out, save it for next time, or presumably try to sell it someone else who might use it (note: I make no claims as to the legality of reselling an unused pass).

Latest:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a9EaBzDAymAQ

I went to the Louvre this afternoon to check things out - the IM Pei entrance is closed. It seems like everyone has to enter at the Carrousel. There is a list again of many closed rooms. Since the ones I am interested in were closed I left. They seem to be charging the regular admission. The Titian exhibit is open...

Today the Louvre and Versailles are now closed

As I said above, at around 2 pm on Friday, parts of the Louvre were opened. The kind woman at the Information Desk gave me the telephone number there - 01 40 20 53 17 - and said they should know after 10 am what parts of the museum will be open depending upon how many of the staff come in to work...hope that helps someone in Paris now like me...

This is terrible news for all the travelers to Paris, but fortunately, most of the museums are now back open.

A couple of things to note: certain museums are still closed (the Center Pompidou for example) and larger ones (like the Louvre) are not fully open as they are still suffering from a shortage of staff.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected] or visit us at www.AeonTours.com

Looks like only the Pompidou center is still closed today, but the employees are not yet satisfied.

In Paris and loving it despite all the rain. Visited Louvre on Saturday afternoon. It was closed, but opened just as we were about to leave. Saw the big 3..Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, & Venus de Milo. Beautiful, all.
Today, we saw everything in Musee de l'Orangerie...Magnifique!
Still trying to find out of Opera Garnier is open. Will try tomorrow.

cristeen,

Great that you are finding things open...enjoy your visit..

Joan

In my opinion, the Ministry of Culture employees have great need of their Decemeber salaries, but they are only biding their time.

I did thank a lady watching over one of the rooms in the Louvre on Saturday for opening that day. She looked at me like I was crazy.

Any news on the museum situation?