PARIS – On vacation with the grève. To come to Paris in the middle of strikes and protests is necessary to know and translate the uses and customs of the time.
social Movement
Is the term often preferred to the word strike, perhaps because it is more politically correct. It is mostly used in institutional communications — “en raison d’un mouvement social” — to provide information on the hardships in transportation or in the normal operation of some services.
Grève
In conversations christmas all prefer instead the term grève, the strike, combined with the stories of the odyssey, and the exchange of tips and tricks to survive the inevitable quarrel between supporters and victims of the grèvistes, the workers on strike. In a contradiction typical of the French, the etymology goes back to the place de la Grève, the ancient name of the piazza in front of the Hotel de Ville, facing the Seine where they were employed on a piece-work labourers.
advent Calendar
From December 5th, the first day of the national strike against pension reform, in the traffic forecasting accompany the life of parisians who discover day by day, reinventing the tradition of christmas, how many and what means the public are guaranteed. We are now at the twentieth day of blocks. Unless sensational surprises, the France is preparing to break the record of the 1968 and 1995, when strikes lasted three weeks.
Paralysis
it Is what everyone feared, reminiscent of the previous of the past. This time, the Country is not paralyzed. The region most affected by the inconvenience it’s just — say — that of the Ile-de-France, Paris and its region. The strike is, in fact, very, followed by the machinists of the Ratp, the company municipal of the capital, which in normal times carries every day twelve million passengers.
The last metro
line 1 and line 14, which cut the city from east to west, normally work because they are automated. During off-peak times circulate other subway lines, with wagons overflowing. Some of the bus lines are guaranteed, but with long waits. The best thing to do is to download the application Ratp to see in real time the movement. If you need to move in the train applies the same advice: consult the website of the Sncf that offers live updates.
Airports
There have been some days in December with cancelled flights to Paris, but at the moment there is no prediction that it will happen again during the holidays. The lines of the Rer, the regional train linking Roissy and Orly, they have a movement reduced. Expect long waits for taxis and a lot of traffic going to and from Paris.
Mobility
To move these days and we must be prepared to take a long walk, combining the few lines of the metro that work with bicycles, scooters. Paris has a bicycle rental service (Velib’) that you can use through pass (from a minimum of five euro). The application of Uber allows you to hire bicycles and scooters. If a car is needed, then there are at least three applications of “free float” (Share Now, Free2Move, and Ubeeqo), but it is good to know that the traffic jams in this moment can be terrible.
Museums
The Louvre has announced the closure for today, tomorrow, the 31st of December and the first of January. Many other museums are regularly open, but with reduced hours. The Pompidou has anticipated, for example, the closure 18. The Eiffel tower remained closed only in the first day of the strike on 5 December. It is good to always call or check on the websites before you go.
Parades
The trade unions are given an appointment to the 9th of January for the next big event. This does not exclude that there are other parades during the holidays, but in general they are announced and just avoid the neighborhood. There is to say that the parisians are accustomed to live together with the manifs. In the last year, the Prefecture has authorized nearly two hundred parades, over those that are not expected of the yellow vest.
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