I can understand the philosophy behind the action of the unions calling upon the workers to go on strike as a form of protest against certain unfavorable policies. This time, it was something to do with the pension fund policy in France. On one hand, I am pleased to see workers coming together to achieve a common goal. It is a rare scene from where I come from. On the other hand, it sucks when we as tourists have to bear with the inconvenience and uncertainty in a place that does not communicate in English. Every moment, there may be a surprise on where the train is heading, where the train is not heading, which station it does or does not stop. Through chitchatting with the locals, we learned that a strike or better known as industrial action or social movement is well planned in advance. And it is usually set in stages. Every morning during the strike period, the unions get together and vote to decide if the strike should be intensified to the next stage. Or if their objectives have been achieved, the unions may call off the strike – for now. The beauty of it all is, no one knows what tomorrow would bring.
Although the train service was shutdown to the minimal, we stuck to our plan and visited Versailles that is about 25 km away from Paris. To read more, there are:
- A travel journal of about 800 words.
- A photo collection of 22 photos.
- A quick look at a selected set of photos below.