Travel to and from France will be severely disrupted from Thursday morning owing to large-scale strikes across the country in protest at plans to overhaul its retirement system.
The walkout is expected to hit transport the hardest as flights, trains and buses suffer cancellations, and most of the Paris subway system comes to a halt.
No tickets are available on Eurostar trains until Tuesday, with the company saying it had cancelled almost 100 services between now and then.
Air France said around 30% of its domestic flights would be cancelled.
Easyjet, British Airways and Ryanair have also opted to cancel many of their flights to and from France.
As tourists cancelled travel plans, police said they would deploy thousands of extra officers across Paris to help the city cope with what is expected to be a challenging day on Thursday.
Workers at the national railway SNCF stopped on work on Wednesday evening while other services planned to shut down on Thursday morning for an indefinite period.
In Paris, where workers' unions are planning a large-scale protest march on Thursday, police are warning of possible violence and damage and ordered all businesses, cafes and restaurants along the route to close.
Authorities also issued a ban on protests on the Champs-Elysees, around the presidential palace, parliament and Notre Dame Cathedral.
Paris police chief Didier Lallement said 6,000 police officers would be deployed around the city, amid fears that yellow vest protest groups and extremist troublemakers could join the action.
The Eiffel Tower is warning tourists to delay a visit to the famous monument because the strike will disrupt access on Thursday.
The Louvre Museum said its opening on Thursday may be delayed and some viewing rooms may be closed.
Hotels across Paris reported receiving numerous cancellations ahead of the strike, as wary tourists eyed closing transport routes and decided to skip their Paris trips.
The SNCF railway company expects nine out of 10 high-speed trains to be cancelled.
The French government said 55% of teachers would be on strike on Thursday and hospitals will also be affected.
Workers are angry at President Emmanuel Macron's plan to streamline the country's 42 state pension systems, fearing they will have to work longer and earn less upon retirement.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel