As someone who has often been affected by Frensh strikes, a few words, what travelling is like in such a situation: Participation in the strikes varies from day to day and so does the service offering. Around 5pm the SNCF put the schedules for the next day online. What is listed there, will run.
On a bad day only about 1 in 3 or 1 in 5 TGVs will run. Between large cities (like Paris-Lyon or Paris-Marseille), there is some basic service. Usually, the TGV Intersecteur (or province-province) e.g. like Rennes-Strasbourg are mostly cancelled, Same holds for service than only run once or twice a day. The few Intercite trains left, are mostly cancelled too: The night trains for sure and most of the day trains as well.
The TER services will mostly serve the commuter times in the morning and late afternoon. Low volume line see no service at all. Some regions offer bus replacement service, but I would not count on that. In the afternoon the schedules for the next day are available on the TER websites of the different regions.
If your TGV is cancelled, you can rebook to another train. You will need a new reservation for this train (as most big stations have automated gates now, there is no way around a reservation). You must be flexible concerning the departure time.The SNCF allows some "overbooking" in such situations. I remember that one time I sat on a folding seat in the TGV coach vestibule from Rennes to Paris - but this got me to Paris in time to catch the last connecting service to Germany that ran that day. Instead of early afternoon, I left mid morning: The half vaction day lost was well spent, because I got home
.
To sum this up: The SNCF has a lot of experience wiht strikes and does the best it can to get as much people as possible to their destinations.
In Paris some level of Metro and RER service usually runs as well. The RATP website will give the details, which service level to expect for the day. The automated lines 1 and 14 tend to run a full service.
hth
Charly
www.instagram.com
