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As you guys have rightly pointed out, the French strikes can definitely have an impact on travel plans! It is a shame when it impacts you directly, but deep down I have to have some respect for the efforts.
It is a shame when you are visiting from outside of France, may not have a contingency plan, may not know how badly you'll be affected, may not have a grasp of the language to fight your way through the obstacles.
For Le Mans 2014 my wife and I came to the race, then spent a few days in Paris and then had pre-booked rail tickets for a trip from Paris to Barcelona. (We could have flown but felt a sense of romanticism towards the rail option) This should have been straight forward, except, there was the big rail strike at the time. We had an apartment booked in Barcelona and someone was on a time schedule to meet us and give us the keys (they would not be available the next day), so it was critical that we got to Barcelona on the day that we intended.
Our hotel in Paris advised that we just go to the train station and wing it. So we showed up to Gare du Nord and attempted to gather some information on how to get to Barcelona as the direct route was no longer an option. Unfortunately the workers were less than helpful and just pointed us in the direction of a train leaving in a few minutes, headed to Montpellier. We had no idea, is this a good plan or not? While trying to decide whether we should go this route or not one of the train attendants said, "You have 30 seconds to get on the train", so we did.
After taking a seat and putting our belongings away we attempted to ask around if anyone knew anything and if they could help us devise a plan. We were fortunate to talk with a very nice French woman who suggested a transferring to a smaller train to Perpignan upon arrival in Montpellier, however not knowing if this train would be running or not. We arrived in Montpellier and disembarked from our train, hoping that the next train was running. There it was sitting on the other platform getting ready to leave, we grabbed our stuff and ran as fast as we could and made it on the train just as the doors closed!
When we arrived to Perpignan we learned that there were absolutely no other trains headed South from there, there may be some the next day, there may not. I attempted to rent a car but there were none available anywhere. We met an older American couple who had asked about busses and where they might be able to take us to. We learned that there was a bus leaving a few hours later that would go to just before the Spanish border. So we waited in the bus station and ate food that had been sitting around all day and worried that we would never get to Barcelona.
Finally the bus left and headed down the coast towards the border.
I cannot begin to describe how truly beautiful this part of the world is, the far South West corner of coastal France on the Mediterranean, with the hills of the Pyrenees and vineyards dotting the hills. This bus stopped at all of the little coves, beaches and tiny little towns along the way, dropping down steep hills towards the ocean and then climbing back up towards the sky for the next decent to the next little beach town. It was absolutely marvelous!
After hitting the last bus stop we caught a taxi to the closest Spanish town, their rail system still on schedule we got on board the first train headed to Barcelona, the sun setting over the coast. At the next stop a group of drunk teenagers with guitars got on our train car and wildly sang Spanish songs at the top of their lungs. After being stressed out all day my initial reaction was more stress from the drunkenness and the loud singing, I quickly though put myself in the moment and enjoyed the experience.
A long post I'm sure, and not helpful for anyone stuck in a current situation. However, if the trains had been operating as they should we never would have had this experience and the amazing memories that went along with it. Hopefully if someone else finds themselves potentially stranded and stressed out over something caused by a strike they will also find themselves fortunate enough to catch a silver lining as we did.
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