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I was a student at the University of Grenoble in the year 1979/1980. The students went on strike in January or February (it's almost 30 years, I can't remember exactly), and quite a few professors decided not to show up for class either. So, in effect, we had no classes for the rest of the year.

If I hadn't been there through a US-run program, it would have been a lost year. But, luckily for our group, the professor who ran the program told us to write a single paper for each class we took (back then, nobody used typewriters for papers, so we they were all handwritten and didn't have to be overly long). If the professor for that class refused to take said paper, he (the US professor) would grade it. We had to save them because those of us who were not students at the sponsoring college had to show them to our professors back home.

I was never in any real danger of losing credits, but it was tough going for a while.

I can't remember the exact reason the students gave for their strike, but I do remember that it made no sense (and, believe me, I had debates with several strikers on the subject). Our program was made up of Americans and Canadians, and we all surmised that part of the reason was that they didn't feel like taking their exams. Nobody paid tuition, so it seemed to us that they could easily get away with remaining students for a very long time.

Needless to say, the non-French Europeans who were also foreign students at Grenoble agreed with the strikers.

So, what was I doing? I was poor, so I couldn't travel as much as I wanted, so I did some day trips by bus and train, went to a lot of museums, a lot of movies and hung out with friends. I probably learned more French by not being in class than I would have in class, so all in all, it was still a fabulous experience.