Public and School Holidays
Public Holidays
There are 11 in France. These are
1st January
Easter Monday
1st and 8th May
Ascension Day
Whit Monday
14th July
15th August
1st and 11th November
25th December.
On these days Government Departments, banks, shops … are, in the main, closed.
School Holidays
French school children and teachers have five holidays a year!
10 days at the end of October
Two weeks at Christmas
10 days in February
Two weeks in spring
and the summer holidays in July and August.
Naturally tourist sites as well as the roads are busier during these periods.
The actual dates vary from region to region and governed by which zone you are administered by see below.
College and lycee (secondary schools and 6th form colleges) normally run from Monday to Friday including Wednesday morning and in some regions Saturday morning school still exists.
Primaire or primary schools normally don't operate on Wednesday mornings and again only operate on Saturday mornings in certain regions. School holidays are therefore variable throughout France, as each school has to undertake a certain number of days during the year.
Zone A : Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lyons, Montpellier, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Rennes, Toulouse.
Zone B : Aix-Marseilles, Amiens, Besançon, Dijon, Lille, Limoges, Nice, Orléans-Tours, Poitiers, Reims, Rouen, Strasbourg.
Zone C : Bordeaux, Créteil, Paris, Versailles.