The Strike

We're always prepared for the worst.

A few years ago, the strikes went on for 10 days or so and it became a little bit old. Normally, the strike lasts for one day and it's over.

Yesterday was the second strike in September. Workers and unions are very unhappy about a number of things, but mostly that the French government is trying to add two years to the retirement age -- from 60 to 62. The system will go broke if everyone continues to live longer and longer but still retire at 60, so something has to be done.

The workers don't think so -- let someone else (maybe their children) pay.

The strike was scheduled to be a big one. The unions always try to make it sound worse than it is (more people demonstrating, etc), the government always tries to downplay it.

Life goes on. The French don't complain very much, even if it their day is disturbed. It's part of life here.

We have learned that sometimes a strike will mess up our day's plans. One time during a strike, we got to the tennis club, played tennis but on the way home (one hour on the metro if there are no problems) the entire metro line was stopped and we had to figure out an alternative to get home, unfortunately carrying all our tennis stuff.

Yesterday we played tennis again. We looked on the RATP website to see which metro lines might be the best to use. We plotted the best route. We left early since tennis courts in Paris are not readily available, if we miss our reservation time, we lose our court.

We got to the first metro, line 12. It arrived in one minute and it was empty. We got to the second stop, ditto. The third line, the same. We arrived 30 minutes early.

The way home was just as easy. We wondered where everyone was. Finally above ground after an easy metro ride, we Rounded the corner and there it was -- a HUGE demonstration. We walked right by it, locked our door and watched it on the news.