European cruises…rail and taxi strike...

The railways and taxis are planning on a strike this week throughout France and other European countries. Apparently they are a pretty common occurrence. Wonder how long they last…

http://www.english.rfi.fr/visiting-france/20140610-french-railways-strike-wednesday-taxis-too

The French love their strikes and anyone who want to travel there has to learn to live with them. Sometimes they have general strikes that may shut down transportation for days, but more often, they have short strikes with a duration not known to the public, that may only last an hour or so and may occur one or more days a week.

We were scheduled to take the TGV from Paris to Lyon on the 12th, and our train was cancelled. We were advised to go to the train station and just get on any train going to Lyon, and we might end up standing or sitting in the restaurant car. We didn't want to risk it, so we rented a car and drove to Lyon - took a little over 4 hours.

Last summer the people who work the Eiffel Tower went on strike and so did the people who work at the Louvre.

We were scheduled to take the TGV from Paris to Lyon on the 12th, and our train was cancelled. We were advised to go to the train station and just get on any train going to Lyon, and we might end up standing or sitting in the restaurant car. We didn't want to risk it, so we rented a car and drove to Lyon - took a little over 4 hours.

Yeah, that's always a fun time... We disembarked a cruise in Nice once, and had TGV tix to Paris. Of course, they scheduled a strike for that day so when we arrived at the Gare de Nice, no train!

Luckily, we walked to Hertz next door and got a one-way rental to Paris. It was a long drive with lots of traffic, but we made it! The tolls on the French highways are obscene; would have been cheaper to take the train...

One word of advice for you: if you're still in France, take your prepaid train tickets to a train station for a refund on the spot. We didn't check our e-mail in Paris; they sent an e-mail apologizing for the inconvenience caused by the strike, and telling us to get a refund at the station. So we didn't realize we could have done this.

We did get a refund eventually, after we got home, by direct transfer to our bank account from SNCF, but it took a lot longer. They did work with us by e-mail. Just dropping by the station would have been much easier.

Thanks for the refund advice… keeping fingers crossed that they will not be on strike when we get there!

Last June we were staying in Aix Provence three nights post cruise and Air France had a strike with air traffic controllers . I was fortunate to have my I Pad and happened to check my flight that was cancelled . It was a real hassle trying to reach Air France to rebook our flights. Bottom line we had a chance to stay an extra day in beautiful Aix and our travel insurance paid the extra night also our meals.. :)

Thanks for the great train strike advice! We have tickets for a 7/5 train from Paris to Bordeaux for our Viking Foresti cruise. Hopefully the strike will be ended by then. If not, we're ready to get that refund and rent a car.