The Cottage Smallholder

Some more info:

"The thing is we never know beforehand how serious the strike will be. Sometimes they are announced as a serious strike and everything works normally, other days on a supposedly small strike the train stations are simply closed down!

If you're coming during the big demonstrations of September 7, avoid all the big plazas (Bastille, Nation, République) and avenues. Perfect occasion for a stroll in the Marais for instance!

I say, as long as you've thought about the cab service, you'll be good, but it might be a bit more expensive if the cab gets caught in a traffic jam."

And this is the Google translation of the relevant Union webpage.

Merci Forumites.

I've booked a shuttle taxi via the hotel for our Tuesday trip, and if needs be we'll travel with carry on luggage only.

I've also set up a Google News alert and am keeping an eye on the Tripadvisor forums.

The lady I spoke to at the hotel was lovely - I could almost hear her shrug as she said "eh, every year it is the same thing and we never know how it will be." 🙂

Hi guys. Sorry I've been quiet online here in recent days. Work days were longer than usual as I needed to get everything done before my week off. I'm not a fan of the 8am to 6pm working day, but will suffer it for a while for a good cause.

Any online time I've had has been spent addictively reading Tripadvisor forums and translating le Monde and le Figaro articles through the magic of Google Translate.

It's looking like some of the air traffic controllers' unions may be involved and that could impact our flights. There will be restrictions on number of flights allowed in French airspace. At the minute Air France is saying they'll run the majority of their flights. We'll be prepared for delays at either airport as best we can.

If this trip was just G and I it would be easier. The fact it's DadTrip 2010 and he's been highlighting exciting bits in his guide book for weeks, means I worry more.

MOS - I've found nothing mentioning any of the ports yet. If they do I'll post it here.

I'm meant to be on a plane landing at CDG airport around now but the flight was canceled this morning due to the strike. Boo.

Thankfully I'd been stalking the CDG and Belfast airport flight status webpages and got wind of it really early on. We've re-arranged the flights and hotels[1] and hopefully the holiday will kick off as planned, just a day later. Yay!

One learning point from all this - always give Easyjet a mobile contact number for bookings. I got a text from them at 10:22 telling me about the cancellation. Admittedly this was long after the CDG webpage flagged it up, and a bit after my EJ account page updated. But it was still much earlier than their email update. That didn't arrive in until 14:09 - three quarters of an hour before the flight was due to leave.

Keep your fingers crossed for me for tomorrow. Ta!

[1] in an insane hour and a half of phone calls, emails and webforms.