The French National Pastime

Not Football... Strikes!

"Grèves National," and "Manifestations" abbreviated "Manifs" will be words that you become all too familiar with.

Strikes happen quite often. The teacher’s go on strike on average once every 2 months. So that is approximately 3.5 strikes for the assistants. However, not ALL of the teacher’s go on strike. You’re not required to go on strike with them. You lose a day of pay (Well, we’re supposed to) if you strike.

This year, we were lucky enough to witness our students go on strike. They blockaded the hallways in the school during the 2 weeks before Christmas break, essentially giving us a month long vacation. The students all came to school, but just sat around playing games and watching movies... "in protest." Nobody really stopped them. If anything, the teachers and parents were proud that the students are joining in on France’s most popular national pastime. This was nationwide, not just in Vire. They were protesting education reforms for next year (they always are). When i saw this happening, I was absolutely shocked, and I told the teachers how crazy I thought it was, and they said "Really? Hmm.. this is pretty normal..."

Often when the teachers go on strike, it is part of a Grève National. This is the kind of strike that shuts down anything public - education, trains, subways, buses, air traffic controllers, etc. They are usually 1 day long, and that day tends to be a Thursday. I booked a flight to Copenhagen for a Thursday that happened to be during a Grève National. So, if you're stuck traveling on a strike day, just be cautions. Give yourself plenty of time and learn as much information about the travel delays as you can. I got to Copenhagen just fine. I was expecting a huge time crunch for making my plane, but instead, there was only one train going to Paris that day from Vire, and it left at 6:30am. My flight was at 6pm... so I ended up blowing about 6 hours in Paris. Not the worst thing in the world.