The following is for information purposes only. Strike is currently on-going. <BR> <BR> <BR>"IMAGINE TAKING your long-awaited trip to Paris — and finding the museums shut down by a strike. <BR> It’s the predicament facing disappointed tourists today. <BR> One woman from Knoxville, Tenn., says she wanted to spend the whole day today at the Louvre. But it’s closed, along with the Picasso Museum, the Orsay Museum and even the Arc de Triomphe. <BR> <BR> It’s not rare to have strikes at the museums in Paris. But this is the first time in recent years that so many were affected at once. <BR> The Knoxville woman, Stacy Safran, says, “I guess we’ll see the outside of the buildings.” <BR> Outside the Louvre, visitors are crowded around the main entrance, where signs in six languages give them the bad news. Striking workers are there to hand out leaflets explaining their grievances. <BR> For one thing, they want the Ministry of Culture to hire more people."

Imagine how my 22 year old daughter feels. She just graduated college and after spending 4 years studying art history/arts management and historic preservation and taking a 12-day whirlwind tour of several European cities she arrived in Paris last week to find out the museums are on strike. Her main purpose was to visit museums in Europe. She did not get into the Louvre or the Musee d'Orsay, etc. What a major disappointment. And who knows when she will get there again, if ever.

This is a real bummer for people whose main interest is museums. Most were to be open yesterday (I returned yesterday), but closed again on Tuesday, 5/25, when they were going to try to renegotiate. While the strike was on last week, the museums that were not members of some state museum organization were open. I would be careful about putting out money for the Carte des Musées without knowing everything is settled. I would warn those of you who want to go to the Musée Marmottan that the basement level that housed the impressionists is closed. Some of the paintings were hung upstairs and some were at the Orangerie where there is a Monet Nymphéas (waterlilies) exhibit. The museum pass is not good at the Marmottan ever, so it will not be closed. The Orangerie may be closed for the strike, but even if it is open, the Carte des Musées does not cover the exhibit. I hope this is comprehensible; I haven't had my coffee fix yet this morning. <BR>

If the Louvre is on strike l'Orangerie is also. On the other hand the "season of strikes" should be over soon. After all the tourist hordes will be there shortly! <BR>

We just returned from Paris last week and we encountered two days of striking employees, missing both the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay. <BR> <BR>This was my first thought..."there's absolutely nothing I can do about it!" No amount of anger, disappointment or sulking is going to change it. Take lemons and make lemonade. It's all you can do. Things are different over there...it's why we go!

The strike is rather "spotty." One wing of the Louvre was open Sunday, 5/23. The Orsay was sometimes open when the Louvre was closed. The same was true for the Orangerie. The receptionist at my hotel called every day to see what was open and what was not. Many museums were closed, but with perseverance, you might find some open. <BR>

L'Orangerie is closed until the end of the year, regardless of the museum strike. We tried to visit it when we were in Paris in March, and there was a big sign that said something to the effect that the art from the museum was on tour, and wouldn't reopen at that location until the end of the year. Just an FYI... <BR>

I arrived in Paris on the 5th of May to discover the trains were on strike! I was worried about my day trips to Fontainebleau, Dijon, Reims, and to Bayeux for 3 nights. Thank goodness it ended just before our first day trip! And we left just before the museum strike started! Lucky us! But sorry to hear others are missing some of the best museums in the world! But Paris itself is a sight to see, so one has to improvise. Enjoy what you can see!

I think I have posted too much on this subject, but I did go to the Orangerie on Saturday, 5/22. It has a large exhibition of Monet's Nymphéas that runs, I believe, until sometime in June. If you are a fan of these paintings, it will be worth the time you stand in line. In addition to the permanent ones in the basement, the Museum has on display a very large collection from various museums. The walls have been painted lavender to complement the paintings. <BR>I'm not surprised at your posting, Suzy. I was there in February and thought so much was out at other museums that it was not worth the visit. Perhaps the Nymphéas exhibit was not considered as part of the regular museum agenda. <BR>

How long is this supposed to last? Has there been an extended strike during the June/July tourist season in recent years? Is this a moving strike from one museum to the next as implied in the other responses? Does anyone know for sure if it is limited to the carte museums? Is there a current update?

Any updates to the questions posed by John just above?

Paris museum strikes drag on <BR> <BR>Louvre, Orsay, Arc de Triomphe, National Archives closed <BR> <BR>ASSOCIATED PRESS <BR> <BR>PARIS, May 27 — With no end in sight to a weeklong strike by its staff, the Louvre museum said Thursday it will have to cancel some upcoming cultural projects because of mounting losses. The Louvre said it has so far lost $500,000 and that at least 100,000 people — most of them foreigners — have been turned away due to the strike. <BR>

Updates on the Paris strike have been updated almost daily on the MSNBC webb site. Go to the Travel-Living section and the article (usally from the associated press) that is available is listed. Make sure you scroll down to get the entire article. Hope this helps!

My mom and I just got back from 2 weeks in Paris this past Tuesday and the museums were closed for about 4 days or so, but we did get to finally go to the Louvre and the Picasso Museum and the Musee de Orsay. The Louvre was the last to reopen and it opened on Sunday. We just did other things that were not museum related. We took some day trips, did the churches, and shopped, walked the city, etc. It really was not all that bad, but by the third day we were getting a bit annoyed about Un GREVE! The strike in French! Thank God they reopened before we left and all was well. Even with the strike we enjoyed Paris to the fullest! We saw absolutely everything we wanted to see and could have even stayed on another few days. It was wonderful! So, even with the strike there is so much to do there, just look around and ENJOY! <BR>Michele

I wonder if the strike is over or not--compare the Associated Press clipping of 5-27 with the 5-28 post of someone who just returned and finally visited some museums after the strike had postponed them initially. Do some of the museums close because of the strike and then reopen, only to close again later because of the strike?

The latest thing I have read this afternoon at the CNN website says that the strike will be broadened and extended. Somethings had been open occasionally, such as the Louvre on Sunday, and tourists have been allowed into Versaille for free. They didn't say what would additionally be closed, but it seems the implication may be Versaille.