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France - museums strike

Versailles and Louvre hit by strike

Article published on the 2009-12-03 Latest update 2009-12-03 13:47 TU

Visitors to Paris's Pompidou Centre (Beaubourg) find the doors looked due to a strike by personnel(Photo: Reuters)

Visitors to Paris's Pompidou Centre (Beaubourg) find the doors looked due to a strike by personnel
(Photo: Reuters)

The world-famous Château de Versailles and the Louvre museum were closed Thursday, as staff joined a strike against planned job cuts in France's museums and historic monuments.

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Other Paris museums and monuments affected include:

  • The Musée d'Orsay, home to a massive collection of impressionist and other 19th century art;
  • The Musée Rodin, housing an exhaustive collection of the sculptor's work in an elegant mansion and extensive gardens;
  • The Arc de Triomphe, war monument at the head of the Champs Elysées;
  • The Gustave Moreau museum, dedicated to the 19th century symbolist painter;
  • The Pompidou Centre, whose staff walked out a week before the national call to action and which has been closed since.

Some monuments outside Paris were closed Thursday, including the château of Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire valley.

Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand gave no hope for a speedy end to the dispute on Wednesday.

After a two-hour meeting with union representatives, he declared: "The reform must be implemented."

All seven unions with members employed by the ministry are backing the strike. They complained that Mitterrand had turned a deaf ear to their case at the meeting.

The strike is in opposition to the policy of replacing only half of all retiring civil servants.

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