I used to fly VFR in France, with the SIA “VFR Pack” which is the VFR charts (N and S) and a little booklet which lists all the various bits and their activity times, and IIRC the phone numbers to contact the various owners on.
It would surprise me if anyone in France still used that system, because the satnav apps ought to integrate all that. Yes the raw data should be in the AIP, plus one has to overlay current notams on it anyway. And if you do short trips then you know the local area anyway.
Not much use to Buckerfan though because if he flew low enough to be allowed VFR in France, he would burn too much fuel.
Still here for the moment. For @Buckerfan what about the Echo routes which can be flown VFR and in many areas up to FL195. No FPL needed
Can be found on the 1:1m charts in the VFR pack I mentioned.
Difficult on that route due to the Paris area VFR ban above FL120.
But isn’t Paris ATC on strike ? Most French pilots would argue that the airspace is then uncontrolled unless the is a specific law or airspace limits are marked on the charts, and not just a case of Paris ATC not giving clearances. @Ibra is more likely to have his finger on the pulse.
If some ATCs are working you can try filing an in flight flight plan starting at a point more than 10 minutes further along your route.
Much of my flying of recent times has been in and out of VFR and IFR in and out of CAS below fl100 as the windshield deice has packed up and flying to and from airfields to the west of Paris, eg Rouen, Le Havre, Caen. Also we have been filing our flight plans with Bordeaux BIA or in flight.
So not a lot of help to @Buckerfan I’m afraid.
Most French pilots would argue that the airspace is then uncontrolled unless the is a specific law or airspace limits are marked on the charts, and not just a case of Paris ATC not giving clearances.
Also for General Delta (FL115-FL195) even when LTA ATC are on strikes it’s unusable VFR or IFR?
AFAIK, Paris airspace is still active it just has less capacity, Orly has cancelled lot of flights, same for airspace above FL200, however, I am not sure about FL115-FL195 and FL65-FL115 bands, they are Golf when ATC are not working?
Quote from someone in ATC, he has lot of fun brining B737 to lose 20000ft in 10nm 
Rennes ATC around the Jersey CTA/CTR goes from the base of CAS up to FL195 (it was formally a Brest sector), When Rennes go on strike, Brest ACC will not descend anything into this airspace. So if inbound to Jersey you would stay at FL200 until the CTR boundary and only descend in Jersey Airspace, spiralling down, Solidarity and all that.
I have flown 3 weeks ago from Channel Islands and back to France during strike Sunday night (I filed FL120 to avoid huge dog leg and stopped climb at FL80: 400L of cheap fuel and no oxygen ), I had lot of slots on departure, once airborne on French side, I could pick LTA ATC at FL120 but no one replies from units on lower levels (Rennes, Caen, Deauville, Rouen, Seine were OFF including ATIS), on descent, I briefly talked to Paris ATC to get WX/QNH and IAF/RNP, he said something like “what is your ETA? and passed number to close FPL…then do what you wish, report when leaving frequency”
How long will this strike last? We had plans to fly through France this week :-(
UdoR wrote:
How long will this strike last? We had plans to fly through France this week :-(
Most of the hassle is on the ground (no tower = no fuel, no soul )
Airspace IFR slots are generally around 45min-1h
Today’s wave extends until 7 April
AFAIK, Paris airspace is still active it just has less capacity, Orly has cancelled lot of flights, same for airspace above FL200, however, I am not sure about FL115-FL195 and FL65-FL115 bands, they are Golf when ATC are not working?
Yes; I really want to test that, especially in the Paris TMA…
Most of the hassle is on the ground (no tower = no fuel
That’s closes France for most visitors.
Operations tend to close and go home when controllers and commercial flights are not around…
There are some AVGAS NOTAM as not available or reduced times (between 10am-12am and 1pm-3pm) one way to get around this is self-service by getting Total Card or BP Card, if it’s an option
On ground hassles, I now enjoy driving my wife electric car (she charges at work or home), while me I have lot of struggle fueling my diesel car in Paris or Rouen: it takes one average 1h to find a fuel station that is not closed, or on strike or with big queue, you may have to go on motorway to get fuel !
Not sure when this nightmare ends
We had this “airspace = G when not manned, etc” stuff here too, but nobody would want to risk it, because you get the timing wrong by seconds and the “CAA chief persecutor” will bust you. Especially if the airspace was Solent, which is most aggressively watched and enforced.
In France, I would want to risk that even less because the system has very little transparency, and zero transparency if you are a foreigner. And sub-zero transparency if you are a foreigner and land in France right afterwards!
Which satnav apps will show the airspace as G during the relevant times?
This stuff is OK if you are a French pilot, because more or less everything then changes. You can BS your way through officialdom – I’ve seen it done. But for outsiders, the only safe way is to either deal with the IFR issues in some “official” way (follow the CTOTs and/or use VFR with care in specific places) or just avoid France. The GC route e.g. EGKA-LDLO is not much different via France (BILGO – REM – HR – HOC – ANC etc route) or via Belgium / Germany (the DINKU route).
