The Strike

This is how my public transport experience turned out on Thursday and Friday:

Thursday: I needed to get to Saint Denis for a class at EDF by 10am. I knew from RATP's website that I'd need to allow extra travelling time to get there. I left home 45mins earlier than usual for this class, and after standing on the platform for line 13 for about 35mins, I arrived on time for my lesson, which actually surprised me and the student. That's fine, extra time was annoying, but I got there in the end, so it was okay. My problems were worse at the end of the lesson though when I arrived at the metro station (Carrefour Pleyel) and discovered that the trains weren't just more infrequent, they had stopped completely, and I was informed that there wouldn't be another train for at least 3 hours. Great. 3 hours is a long time to wait in Saint Denis, so I decided that the only other option, as the buses had stopped too, was to return to Paris (Saint Denis isn't actually in Paris) on foot. It took me 2.5 hours to get back to the school's premises near the Avenue des Champs Elysées.
At least from the school it wasn't far to walk to La Place de la Madeleine, where I can catch line 14 directly back to Châtelet, and line 14 was running because it's completely automatic.

On Friday, the strike continued. In the morning, the trains were infrequent on most lines, but not as bad as Thursday morning, so while I had to get to Saint Denis again, I thought it would be okay as I assumed that there'd be a train to return me to Paris. I was wrong. Feeling a bit annoyed at the prospect of another long walk back to civilisation, but having really no other choice, I started walking back again. At least I knew the way and knew how long it would take, so I knew it was feasible. Well, after walking for only 5 minutes, one of the managers from the school rang me and was quite desperate for a teacher and offered to have the school pay for a taxi to get me back to the school on time for an impending 3-hour lesson, which wasn't one that I was scheduled to take anyway. So I had two choices: Take the taxi and get paid an extra 3 hours for teaching an extra lesson; or walk the 2.5-hour trek back to the centre of Paris.
Another good point: The lesson was fun, the students were nice, and we had coffee and biscuits halfway through.

According to the website, the strike will not continue tomorrow. I don't know if they got what they wanted but for me the important part is that the trains will be running as normal.