Thanks to the strikes I didn't make it in to work today - our part of town was really quiet all day, so I guess a lot of people took the day off rather than struggling in to work in the traffic or on foot. The St Michel RER station was closed, so you couldn't even go down to look for a train. Apparently the RER B line is notoriously militant.

It's not clear what will happen tomorrow. It seems that some disruption will certainly continue. I'll probably go down to St Michel in the morning and see if I can get a train, but I'm not holiding out much hope.

It's a very interesting point in French political history - a narrow majority of people voted for Sarkozy on the basis of his programme of reforms, so they must now presumably be against the strikers? The early retirement privileges were given to state railway drivers in 1946, when they were expected to shovel their own coal into the engine, so are they really fair now? But how do you tell a 49 year old guy who has worked for wages below the private sector all his life, in return for the pension package, that he now has to do at least 2.5 years more work (this is the deal that's being proposed) ? A lot of UK workers might say retirement at 53 isn't too bad either, but the syndicats here are concerned that if they make any concessions then it will lead to all their privileges being eroded away.

Personally speaking, though the strike is an incovenience. and though I can't imagine how France can afford to pay for such a generous retirement package for state workers given the ageing population, I think if I was a state railway driver I'd be right at the front of the picket line defending my rights..