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June strikes in France effect travel

kadey

By kadey,
in River Cruising

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kadey

kadey

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We are scheduled to leave this Thursday with a change of planes at Heathrow Friday morning. Early afternoon on Friday (June 3) we are scheduled leave heathrow and fly into Marseilles and meet our ship. I see there a quite a few scheduled strikes set for France next week. Air traffic in France is supposed to strike from June3-5. Has anyone experienced this interfering with getting to the ship? We will be on Vantage (our flights booked through them) and I imagine this will effect a lot of the passengers. Can anyone share their experience .. Was your flight rerouted to still get you there? was your trip cancelled? was the trip shortened? Do you just not make it all. This is our first river cruise and I've been very excited counting down the days! I feel a little panic starting!

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SLWW

SLWW

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Posted
We are scheduled to leave this Thursday with a change of planes at Heathrow Friday morning. Early afternoon on Friday (June 3) we are scheduled leave heathrow and fly into Marseilles and meet our ship. I see there a quite a few scheduled strikes set for France next week. Air traffic in France is supposed to strike from June3-5. Has anyone experienced this interfering with getting to the ship? We will be on Vantage (our flights booked through them) and I imagine this will effect a lot of the passengers. Can anyone share their experience .. Was your flight rerouted to still get you there? was your trip cancelled? was the trip shortened? Do you just not make it all. This is our first river cruise and I've been very excited counting down the days! I feel a little panic starting!

 

 

We are watching the situation also. We are scheduled to fly from Toronto to Heathrow overnight on Saturday, June 4th, and then to Paris on June 5th. Our travel agent was talking to both British Airways and Scenic on Friday, and they just keep saying so far it's business as usual. We are getting nervous too!

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Needzavacation

Needzavacation

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I feel for anyone worrying about this. We faced the rail strike on our river cruise a couple of years ago, and ended up renting a car and driving from Paris to Lyon. I always find it helpful to monitor news via media in-country. Here's one source: http://www.connexionfrance.com/Airport-port-ferries-strike-18106-view-article.html

It looks like it's going to be bumpy in June.

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SLWW

SLWW

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So, I am now breathing a big sigh of relief :)

 

According the Reuters link below, the main French air traffic controllers union has now lifted the threat of the strike:

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/france-union-strike-idUSL8N18T5M7

 

Jeff

 

 

Thank you for posting this, that is very good news for us also. I had not heard they were not going to strike now.

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  • 2 weeks later...
capriccio

capriccio

Posted
Posted (edited)
One of our editors just returned from a Viking cruise through the South of France -- she left right as the strikes were announced. This is what she had to say: Just Back from Viking Buri: Cruising During the French Labor Strikes.

 

Safe Travels!

 

~Brittany Chrusciel, Associate Editor, Cruise Critic

 

We were in France from May 21 to June 5, on a Seine river cruise the first week and a Rhone river cruise the second week. As soon as the Seine cruise began our cruise director and various tour guides discussed the long lines at French gas stations attributing it to intentional slow downs in petrol delivery to protest new labor regulations and consumers' panicked reactions. There was fear that the buses might have trouble getting petrol but that never happened.

 

Instead on the day we were to travel from Caudebec-en-Caux to Honfleur some group (I can't remember who) conducted an unannounced blockage of the 3 bridges over the Seine in western Normandy during the morning rush hour. The only 'open' bridge was in Caudebec-en-Caux and since we were moored in the town we could see the traffic (lots of trucks especially trying to get thru town) at a dead stop while up on the bridge we needed to cross (the only one of the three open) traffic was crawling. Our local bus drivers saved the day. They parked heading away from the bridge and then drove us through the countryside north of town and made an approach to the bridge from a much less trafficked route. We got over the bridge, slowed down and stopped for 30 seconds to let one of tour guides who had parked by the side of the road hop on and we were off through the Norman countryside on country roads some of the guides had never been on. It was absolutely beautiful and the ride ended up taking only 15 minutes longer than planned. As predicted by our guides and cruise director, once the morning rush hour was over the protesters disbanded and we were able to take a more direct route back in the afternoon.

 

On the Rhone cruise many were worried about Air France and air traffic controller strikes but nothing came of those. Unfortunately the strikes and, even more frequently, threats thereof are a fact of life in France (and other countries in Europe to a lesser extent).

Edited by capriccio
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jrkstl

jrkstl

Posted
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Just landed in the states a few moments ago (currently at DTW awaiting flight home) from Paris via Air France. Our connecting flight from Bordeaux to Paris via Air France flew this morning as well. I gather there have been cancellations, but according to the Air France app, about 90% of flights are fine. Side note - kudos to Viking Air as those passengers that had canceled flights today were rerouted by them, and all seemed well.

 

Jeff

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CPT Trips

CPT Trips

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We were in France from May 21 to June 5, on a Seine river cruise the first week and a Rhone river cruise the second week. As soon as the Seine cruise began our cruise director and various tour guides discussed the long lines at French gas stations attributing it to intentional slow downs in petrol delivery to protest new labor regulations and consumers' panicked reactions. There was fear that the buses might have trouble getting petrol but that never happened.

 

Instead on the day we were to travel from Caudebec-en-Caux to Honfleur some group (I can't remember who) conducted an unannounced blockage of the 3 bridges over the Seine in western Normandy during the morning rush hour. The only 'open' bridge was in Caudebec-en-Caux and since we were moored in the town we could see the traffic (lots of trucks especially trying to get thru town) at a dead stop while up on the bridge we needed to cross (the only one of the three open) traffic was crawling. Our local bus drivers saved the day. They parked heading away from the bridge and then drove us through the countryside north of town and made an approach to the bridge from a much less trafficked route. We got over the bridge, slowed down and stopped for 30 seconds to let one of tour guides who had parked by the side of the road hop on and we were off through the Norman countryside on country roads some of the guides had never been on. It was absolutely beautiful and the ride ended up taking only 15 minutes longer than planned. As predicted by our guides and cruise director, once the morning rush hour was over the protesters disbanded and we were able to take a more direct route back in the afternoon.

 

On the Rhone cruise many were worried about Air France and air traffic controller strikes but nothing came of those. Unfortunately the strikes and, even more frequently, threats thereof are a fact of life in France (and other countries in Europe to a lesser extent).

 

Sounds like an infamous "59 minute strike."

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dbncsuvet

dbncsuvet

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Unfortunately, it seems like strikes in France are cyclical and always on-going. We were there from May 25 through June 7 and experienced strikes at gas stations, rail strikes, and airport employee strikes. We were most impacted by the rail strikes as our TGV was canceled and we had to re-book on another train. The train was packed with a lot of people standing for 3 hours straight due to train cancellations. On the day we flew home, the airport workers were striking and would not allow any cars into the airport to drop passengers off. Luckily, our hotel was on the CDG tram so we took that straight into the airport but I am sure people missed their flights that day. The good news for air traffic control and pilot strikes is that they usually shift personnel so that international flights are not affected.

 

After this visit, my best advice is to be flexible with all travel in France and to allow extra time. Also, always check train and flight status ahead of time.

 

Good luck!

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