Did SNCF offer an alternative? They required to give you the choice between:

1. a refund
2. travel with the next available connection
3. travel on another day of your choice

All without extra costs. If you choose #2 and that requires an overnight stay, then they have to provide accommodation.

You obviously want option 2. I looked at the SNCF website but the few trains that are running are fully booked, so calling SNCF and asking for an alternative will very probably not help.

I now see that 1 place has become available in the 9:17 TGV. CALL NOW:
00 33 1 84 94 3635, press #85 for English.

Other than that, I'd be inclined just to board the 9:17 TGV and look for an unreserved place (and play musical chairs) or go and sit in the bistro carriage. Should there be any ticket inspection (low chance on such days), just show your reservation form the cancelled train.

Edit: the 9:17 from Nîmes leaves from Montpellier St Roche at 8:48.

Thank you so much for your reply.

I tried SNCF But they are closed until 8 o’clock tomorrow morning.

I can try the musical chairs approach going from Montpellier but I wonder how I would get onto the platform?

Do they close the platforms in Montpellier? I've only seen that in the largest stations. Otherwise just use the reservation you have or your pass, which is also supposed to work on the gates in France.

Depends. Montpellier-St.-Roch no closing off, in Montpellier - sud-de-France, yes active barriers (been there last year) . 

Thanks to everyone for their input.  I’ve just managed to get through to sncf on the telephone and they have moved the reservation to a 0917 train from Nimes. 

So the last problem I have is to decide how reliably I will be able to get from Montpellier to Nimes tomorrow morning before 0917.  There are a number of trains showing as not cancelled but I don’t know - on this strike day - how accurate the timetable will be..

Couldn't they change your reservation to starting from Montpellier? Otherwise, just board your train at 8:48 in Montpellier. You seat will probably be free anyway.

By way of an update……….

I hadn’t mentioned that I was going from Barcelona to Montpellier the day before as I’d not received any notice of any disruption on that route. But, when I got to Barcelona Sants I saw that that train was suspended too.

I spoke to the inoui representative who - while pleasant enough - had no options for me apart from to fly to London. I suggested that they had a requirement to provide me with an alternative passage including a hotel if required. He said that he knew nothing about this and that it would be impractical because the strike could go on for days. I showed him the email from sncf showing my train change from Montpellier to Paris for the next day and he expressed surprise as he considered it unlikely that it would run.

I therefore took a flixbus using the sncf app to Montpellier at a cost of 70 Euros. This journey was about 3 or 4 hours longer.

The next morning I went to the station to take the train sncf had emailed me to take (albeit that my reservation was from Nimes not Montpellier).

In contract to what was suggested to me there were ticket checks at the station but I explained my situation to platform staff who discussed it with the chef du train who allowed me to board and sit in the café bar to Paris. 

Does anyone have thoughts on compensation? I paid for the reservation Barcelona to Nimes but the train was cancelled and thus I also paid 70 Euros to get the bus so I could keep my remaining connections, which I did. 

SNCF are required to offer an alternative. They didn't and you found one yourself, which means they should pay you back the extra expenses for Flixbus. You'll have to contact SNCF customer service and if they refuse (or don't answer), you can contact the ombudsman or the French national enforcement body.

It's a shame SNCF employees don't know about EU legislation that has been in force since 2009.

Thanks for the further input - one thing that the inoui guy did say was that I should take up any complaints with the people I booked through - ie interrail. Does that sound correct please?

Not really, see:

https://www.interrail.eu/en/support/delay-compensation

You could send a request to Interrail about your extra expenses, but they would just forward it to SNCF, who were responsible to get you sorted in the first place.

If SNCF and Interrail start pointing at each other, then also contact the French ombudsman or the French national enforcement body.

Yeah, SNCF is really a pain in the ass about that stuff…
My sister had her train back home from Paris also cancelled yesterday morning and SNCF staff didn’t let her board the next train to Strasbourg with her ticket from Paris to Germany and only said it is not valid LOL. Then she bought for herself and her bf two new tickets for 320 euro… and now has to wait until that (hopefully) gets refunded. Not mentioning that she got back home 3 hours later.

Some SNCF staff are very helpful and rebook you without extra costs on the next available train (which is what they should have done here). Others can't be bothered and insist you buy a completely new ticket. Your sister should of course also get this back from SNCF, if necessary via the enforcement body or the ombudsman. Regulation 1371/2007 applies, also in case of force majeure.

I had a very similar experience, @Ian. I was going to reply to my original post, which was kindly answered by @rvdborgt, but instead I'll add to this thread in the interest of sharing.

Recap: my Sunday/Monday night train Paris Austerlitz to Perpignan was cancelled. We had reservations booked through Eurail. We never received any messages about the cancellation but knew about the strikes and could see on sncf.com that our train was cancelled.

Calling SNCF (from London): Got through to speak to someone who was nice enough but not much help. They could find the booking and confirmed the cancellation but initially said they wouldn't be able to do anything because the reservation was booked through Eurail. We pushed them to look up alternatives but the trains they found were all fully booked. They suggested to try at the station when we got there and see if the guards would let us on a different train depending on how urgent they deemed our situation to be. 

At Gare du Nord (arrival in Paris): we were permitted to join a line to the SNCF ticket office having shown our cancellation to staff managing a special rail-confusion-queue. At the counter, same story as on the phone: all options sold out until Tuesday, with no guarantee that wouldn't get cancelled too. They only wanted to look up trains to Perpignan. Again, we pushed for alternatives and after trying various destinations in south of France they did actually find a TGV to Marseille on the Sunday evening that still had seats. We traded one reservation for the other and got 3 euros back.

On the TGV (to Marseille): it was pretty full and the train staff inspected every aspect of our tickets: the reservations, both our passport numbers, the Interrail Pass in the app and they even wanted to see that the journey had been added to the trip and was coloured yellow! I thought the scrutiny was a bit much considering the disruption on the network but all was in order anyway. Arrived in Marseille just after 23:00PM

Onwards to Spain: we decided not to gamble on using the Pass to still get 2/3 more trains to Barcelona (where we were headed) as indeed some of these did also get cancelled. So we ended up getting a cheap but uncomfortable overnight Flixbus at 23:50PM arriving early Monday in Barcelona Sants.

The end: we arrived in Barcelona quite a few hours earlier than planned and have had confirmation from Eurail that our original reservations will be refunded, which compensates what we paid for the bus. So apart from feeling a bit rougher than expected in the Monday, it was alright in the end. 

I notice that https://www.sncf.com/en/customer-service/exchanges-cancellations says “To get a refund on your TGV INOUI, TER or INTERCITÉS train ticket (including travel outside France), contact the original seller.”

As the Barcelona train which was cancelled was an Inoui ticket, does that suggest that I should be applying to eurail rather than SNCF in this instance?

I think that I would be looking for the cost of the flixbus, the 2 tram connections each end plus 1/16 of the Interrail price as I was more than 120 minutes delayed. Does that sound correct?

From the EU Regulation's point of view (Regulation 1371/2007, article 16), the options are:

1. You don't travel want to anymore and request a full refund (from the original seller).
2. You travel with an alternative connection at the first opportunity under comparable transport conditions. This needs to be at no additional cost and doesn't need to be by train, especially if there are no trains but there are other options. If SNCF did not offer an alternative and you found one yourself, then SNCF should reimburse the additional expenses. Additionally, you can claim compensation for delay from Interrail (on the pass) and on the reservation (from SNCF).
3. You travel with an alternative connection under comparable transport conditions, on a later date of your choice.

It looks like option 2 should apply here. If SNCF refuse, then there's the SNCF ombudsman.

InOui is operated by SNCF so the same.

In terms of getting the reservation costs refunded for the Barcelona-Montpellier train that got cancelled.. if you booked the reservation through SNCF then they're still the ones to follow up with. If you did the reservation through Interrail/Eurail then try following up with them, including all the evidence (pics) of the cancellation and unused reservation.

Delay compensation form for Interrail is on their website. Might get a fraction of the total Pass cost paid back as suggested. 

All other compensation (bus, tram..) I think that's up to SNCF as per rvdborgt's message above. Not sure it'll be easy!