Travellers heading to France are warned of major disruption as ongoing strikes cause chaos on the nation's travel services.
Public transport across the country has seen large numbers of cancellations to rail, road and air services today as industrial action and protests take place in Paris.
Dubbed 'Black Monday', it is estimated just 15% to 20% of rail services were operating normally - with further disruption expected going into Tuesday (December 10).
So far more than 100 Eurostar services have been cancelled as a result of the strikes, with 20 cancelled today (December 9) and another 19 services scheduled to be scrapped tomorrow.
At present eight London-Paris trains have been cancelled on Wednesday, and a further five on Thursday.
In its latest update, the rail company has said that there will be reduced trains to France, Belgium and the Netherlands until December 12 - affecting as many as 30,000 passengers.
There is also major disruption to Metro and RER services in Paris, and on connecting trains to all destinations in France.
Subway stations have remained closed, with trains at a standstill forcing travellers to find alternative methods of transport.
While the strikes mainly affect local transport, French air traffic controllers (ATC) and airport fire service are also taking industrial action, which means disruption to flights to and from France as well as over French air space.
The strike action by air-traffic controllers has led to 100s of flights being cancelled throughout the rest of this week - with a mass walk out scheduled from 7pm local time on Monday to 6am on Wednesday.
Four flights from Heathrow to Paris and Tolouse have been cancelled by British Airways.
Easyjet have urged travellers to check their flight before heading to the airport after the airline was forced to cancel over 200 flights last week as a result of the strikes.
A spokesperson for the airline said: "easyJet is aware of national strike action in France on 10 December, including air traffic control and public transports, in response to national pension reform proposals.
“Like all airlines operating to and from France, and using the French airspace, easyJet is expecting some disruption to its flying programme on this date.
“Due to an increased volume of calls expected to the call centre, we advise customers travelling on the 10 December to check the status of their flights on our Flight Tracker page or manage their bookings using our disruption portal on our mobile app or website at www.easyjet.com/(Your flight number).
“Customers on affected flights will be contacted directly via SMS and email via the details provided at the time of booking.
“Any customers affected by cancellations are eligible for a refund or a free of charge transfer to a new flight.
“Although this is outside of our control, we would like to apologise to all our customers for any inconvenience caused and would like to reassure them we are doing all possible to minimise any disruption as a result of the strike action.”
Anyone flying in to Paris on strike days have been warned they should be aware that public transport to and from the airports is also affected.
French trade unions are calling for mass protests and strike action over reforms to the country's proposed pension reforms.
Mass walk-outs from transport network workers have seen about 85 percent of trains cancelled, while public transport services in Paris and other cities have been severely disrupted.
Teachers, postal workers, civil servants and hauliers are also taking part in a walk-out, grinding large parts of the country to a halt.
Over 800,000 people took to the streets on the first day of the strike with unions hoping marches scheduled on Tuesday (December 10) will be equally as large.
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Official Foreign Office advice is warning of “cancellations and severe delays to train, Metro, bus and tram services”.
The latest FCO travel advice says: “International rail services such as those to the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Germany may also be affected.
“Industrial action at ports may cause delays and cancellations to some cross-Channel ferry services.”
It also warns: “Industrial action by hauliers on some major roads may also cause delays or blockages.”
Due to the disruption to public transport, many commuters took to the road to get to work - which resulted in more than 600km of traffic jams during rush hour - more than double the usual amount on the road network.
