I was there in 2014 and was struck by how gross the metro stations in Paris were. I was there again this month (got home yesterday) and was struck by how much cleaner and nicer the stations seemed. I assumed (with no information) that they’ve been cleaning them up in advance of the Olympics. In any case, my experience this time was quite good. Certainly way better than the NYC subway (still not as good as Tokyo).

If there was a labour strike, then obviously people would not be cleaning up. In Italy, waste management workers were on strike for part of 2023, leaving the capital Rome with piles of trash on the sidewalks for long periods of time.

The stations are orders of magnitude cleaner than they were years ago. Stations that smell like urine are now the minority.