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Will pension strikes affect the Easter holidays in France?

France is in the grip of a long-running battle over pension reform that has seen periodic strikes, large demos and occasional acts of violence in the big cities - so will this be over by the time the Easter holidays start?

Published: 21 March 2023 16:47 CET
Updated: 31 March 2023 15:54 CEST

Will pension strikes affect the Easter holidays in France?

Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP

At the time of writing the next confirmed strike date is Thursday, April 6th, when unions have called for a day of “strong mobilisation”. Precise details have yet to be announced, but it’s likely that Thursday will see disruption on transport includes planes and trains and marches in towns and cities across France.

You can find all the latest on service disruption HERE.

However, this doesn’t mean that Thursday will be the last strike – so far the pattern has been for unions to make an announcement of the evening of the strike day with dates for the next action.

Although the pension reform bill has now been through the parliament, it still needs to be given the seal of approval by the Constitutional Council. The council has until April 14th to deliver its verdict so it seems likely that strikes and demos will continue until at least that date.

You can keep up to date with the latest in our strike section HERE

In addition to the big strike days, some unions are declaring their own ‘rolling’ strikes – these include air traffic controllers and rail workers and these services have seen disruption, albeit on a smaller scale, on most days in recent weeks.

In Paris, striking waste collectors have been ordered back to work, but local authorities estimate it will take at least until early April to shift the 9,000 tonnes of rubbish that piled up during the strike, while waste collectors in Toulouse have recently begun a blockade.

Some places have also seen spontaneous or ‘surprise’ protests, including a building occupation at Bordeaux university and a blockade of the Louvre by striking staff.

Holidays

Like February’s winter holidays – which stretched into March for about one-third of the country, the Spring school holidays in France are stretched over three overlapping two-week periods to avoid overcrowding at holiday resorts, and lengthen the holiday high-season for the tourism industry.

This year’s Spring holidays, which don’t all take in Easter, run from April 8th to March 9th, and break down as follows:

Zone A: April 8th to April 24th (most schools will break up after classes on April 7th).

Zone B: April 15th to May 2nd.

Zone C: April 22nd to May 9th.

Meanwhile in the UK, school holidays in most areas start on April 3rd, so UK visitors will likely start arriving in France from March 31st for an Easter break.

This year Easter Sunday falls on April 10th, with Monday, April 10th a public holiday in France. Good Friday is not a holiday for most of the country, apart from the historic Alsace-Lorraine area.

Travel

France’s roads watchdog Bison Futé forecasts traffic jams are likely on several days during the Spring holiday period – notably on Good Friday, April 7th (which is not a public holiday across most of the country), and on Easter Monday, April 10th (which is a public holiday), when it predicts heavy traffic across large parts of the country.

Its traffic diary for 2023 also notes potential traffic issues in northwest France on Saturday, April 8th; around Greater Paris on April 21st and 22nd, and again on April 28th and 29th. Further travel issues are forecast around the Paris area on May 1st, and the long weekend from Friday May 5th to Monday, May 8th.

Airports, and ferry and rail services also expect to be busier than usual as holidaymakers head off for Easter breaks – which, in turn, makes them key targets for striking workers. So, if there are to be any strikes, expect them to focus on travel hubs.

Weather

The long-range weather forecast predicts temperatures of between 7C and 16C in France for April, with no more than 3-8 days of the rain for the month.

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How French cities are getting people out of their cars

Pay by weight

A number of cities in France are watching the roll-out of new car parking rules in the south-eastern city of Lyon in 2024.

Currently, residents in the city pay a flat rate of €20 per month for an on-street parking permit. But the council has decided that, from next year, residential rates will range from €15 to €45, based on the weight of their vehicle.

Under the new rules, owners of an internal combustion car that weighs less than one tonne, or an electric car weighing less than 2.2 tonnes, will pay €15; for an internal combustion car weighing more than 1.725 tonnes, a plug-in hybrid weighing more than 1.9 tonnes or an electric car weighing more than 2.2 tonnes the price will be €45.

For vehicles in the middle range for weight, the monthly price for permits will be €30.

Carshare lanes

An online consultation on reserving one lane of Paris’s notoriously congested Périphérique for car-sharing, taxis and buses was due to end on May 28th.

The results of that consultation should shape plans for the 35km ring-road beyond next year’s Olympic Games, when one lane will be reserved for athletes, officials and emergency responders.

Prolonging the scheme beyond 2024 as part of the games’ legacy would aim to “develop more virtuous and economical use of cars,” Belliard said.

Radars are already being tested that could detect whether a vehicle has multiple passengers and is therefore legally in the car sharing lane, he added — while insisting that the project remains “open to discussion”.

Low-emission zones

France’s environment minister announced last year a major extension of ‘low-emission zones’ that will see certain types of vehicle effectively banned from numerous town and city centres by 2025.

Those vehicles carrying a 4 and 5 Crit’Air sticker are then banned from these low-emission areas (usually the city centre) or limited to certain times. The exact details of the restrictions are up to local authorities, who have the power to extend the limits – for example Paris intends to also ban Crit’Air 3 vehicles by July 2023. Bordeaux plans to follow suit in 2025.

These zones already exist in 11 French cities – Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-Marseille, Nice, Toulon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Rouen and Reims – but by the end of 2025 they will be compulsory for any town that has more than 150,000 inhabitants. In total this will be around 40 towns and cities. In addition, local authorities in smaller towns can create ZFEs, if they want.

Car-free zones

From next year, Paris plans to ban cars in an area taking in the first to the fourth arrondissements – the area that makes up much of the historic city centre that runs along the Seine and attracts the most tourists.

The plans were first announced in May 2021 and were set to come into effect in 2022, but have been pushed back to allow more time to implement the changes.

An exact date for the introduction in 2024 has not been set, but Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said it will start at the beginning of 2024, ahead of the Paris Olympics, which will be held in July and August.

The plans as envisaged by City Hall don’t constitute a complete ban on all vehicles in the city centre, and there are many exceptions – including for people who live in the central zones to use cars, as well as allowances for delivery drivers, the disabled, taxis, VTC vehicles such as Uber, buses and car-sharing.

Bordeaux, meanwhile, extended the pedestrianised area of its city centre last November, to include part of the Chartrons district, increasing the size of the existing pedestrian area by 45 percent. The current car-free zone is some 58 hectares, and the plan is to increase it to 100 hectares in the next few years.

Low-speed travel

An increasing number of French cities are cutting speed limits to 30km/h in a bid to encourage motorists out of their cars, save lives and – according to advocates – reduce pollution.

Cities recognise that cutting speed limits does not work in isolation. They go hand-in-hand with other so-called ‘soft transport’ measures to reduce reliance on cars in heavily urban areas.

In Montpellier a €150million 10-year mobility plan aims to cut car use and encourage other means of transport.

As well as the reduction in speed limit, the plan includes new cycle lanes, new bus lanes, and improvements to the city’s tram services – including a new line set to open by 2025.

In 2019, Lille took a step-by-step approach to its speed limit reduction, adding new areas over a period of months, while also improving infrastructure for cyclists and public transport.

Cycle lanes

During the pandemic, more people were prompted to take up cycling as a means to escape the virus-spreading confines of public transport. In Paris, the rapidly expanding cycling path network was dubbed “corona-pistes”, as commuters shunned public transport for fear of infection.

Images of Paris as an example of how a city can switch transport focus to cycling are regularly trotted out on social media. But it’s not the only city to do this, as government-backed pro-cycling schemes are proliferating across the country.

Free buses

More than 35 towns and cities across France – including Calais, Dunkirk Libourne, Niort, Aubagne, Gap, and Castres – offer permanent free bus travel on in-town routes.

The idea is to ease congestion on the roads by increasing the number of journeys made by bus, and to reduce the environmental impact caused by cars.

Others – including Rouen, Nantes and Montpellier – run or have trialled free public transport on certain days, notably weekends.

And some have age-restricted free travel, allowing under-18s to travel without having to pay.

Public policy

It’s not just at a local level that France is trying to break the monopoly of car travel. Those commuting in and out of Paris, as well as tourists looking to enjoy a day at Disneyland, are familiar with the region’s extensive suburban train network (RER). According to French President Emmanuel Macron, it might soon be replicated in other French cities in the coming years.

In the latest in a series of short-videos answering constituents’ “ecological” questions, the President responded to the question “What are you doing to develop rail transport in France, and offer a real alternative to [travelling by] car?” by offering plans to duplicate Paris’ RER system in “the 10 main cities” in France.

Macron said that building suburban train networks in other cities would be “a great goal for ecology, the economy, and quality of life.”

He did not give a timeline, but the Elysée later told Le Figaro that the first step would be for “the orientation council for transport infrastructure” to identify which projects could be “launched first.”

Advertising

Since 2022, car adverts have been obliged to carry messages that encourage more eco-friendly forms of transport such as cycling and public transport.

All car adverts now contain one of the following messages:

Pour les trajets courts, privilégiez la marche ou le vélo – For short journeys, prioritise walking or cycling
Pensez à covoiturer – Think about lift sharing
Au quotidien, prenez les transports en commun – On a day-to-day basis, take public transport

The messages must be clearly visible or audible, and failure to comply will lead to a €50,000 fine. They must also mention the hashtag #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer – which encourages people to choose less polluting forms of transport.

Car manufacturers and advertisers will also have to mention which emissions class the advertised vehicle falls into.

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