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The essentials
- 11 public holidays in mainland France, plus 2 extra in Alsace-Moselle (13 in total there) ;
- School holidays alternate between three zones (A, B, C) for the winter and spring breaks — Paris is in Zone C ;
- Most French employees take their main holiday in August, when many shops, restaurants and small services close for two to four weeks ;
- Many companies offer RTT (Réduction du Temps de Travail) days on top of the statutory five weeks of paid leave.
Public holidays (jours fériés) in France
France observes 11 national public holidays a year, most of them rooted in Catholic or historical events. The two regions of Alsace and Moselle add Good Friday and Saint Stephen's Day (26 December), a hangover from the period when the area was part of the German Empire (1871-1918).
A common misconception among newcomers is that every jour férié automatically means a paid day off. In reality, only 1 May (Labour Day) is a statutory paid holiday for every employee. On the other ten days, the employer decides — most companies do close, but retail and hospitality often stay open with paid premium hours.
If a holiday falls on a Sunday, no compensatory Monday is given by default ; if it falls on a Saturday, it is simply lost. Schools, banks, town halls (mairies) and post offices close on every public holiday.
Public holiday calendar: 2026 and 2027
Most public holidays are fixed dates. Three of them — Easter Monday, Ascension and Whit Monday — move with the Catholic calendar.
| Holiday | 2026 | 2027 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day (Jour de l'An) | Thu 1 Jan | Fri 1 Jan | — |
| Good Friday (Vendredi Saint) | Fri 3 Apr | Fri 26 Mar | Alsace-Moselle only |
| Easter Monday (Lundi de Pâques) | Mon 6 Apr | Mon 29 Mar | Variable date |
| Labour Day (Fête du Travail) | Fri 1 May | Sat 1 May | Only statutory paid day |
| Victory Day 1945 (Victoire 1945) | Fri 8 May | Sat 8 May | End of WWII in Europe |
| Ascension Day (Ascension) | Thu 14 May | Thu 6 May | 39 days after Easter |
| Whit Monday (Lundi de Pentecôte) | Mon 25 May | Mon 17 May | Solidarity day in some firms |
| Bastille Day (Fête Nationale) | Tue 14 Jul | Wed 14 Jul | Parade and fireworks nationwide |
| Assumption Day (Assomption) | Sat 15 Aug | Sun 15 Aug | Peak of summer break |
| All Saints' Day (Toussaint) | Sun 1 Nov | Mon 1 Nov | Cemeteries are visited |
| Armistice Day (Armistice) | Wed 11 Nov | Thu 11 Nov | WWI ceremonies |
| Christmas Day (Noël) | Fri 25 Dec | Sat 25 Dec | — |
| Saint Stephen's Day (2e Jour de Noël) | Sat 26 Dec | Sun 26 Dec | Alsace-Moselle only |
For the cultural backstory of each holiday — why people sell lily-of-the-valley on 1 May, what people actually do on Bastille Day — see our companion guide on French customs.
School holidays and the three zones (A, B, C)
French school holidays are set by the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale. The country is divided into three zones, each grouping several académies (regional school authorities). The zones are rotated yearly so that no region always gets the most attractive ski weeks.
Two breaks are identical for everyone: All Saints' (Toussaint), Christmas and the summer break. Two breaks are staggered by zone: the winter break in February, and the spring break in April. The point of the system is to spread tourism load on Alpine ski resorts and seaside towns over six weeks instead of two.
Which zone is your city in?
| Zone | Academies and main cities |
|---|---|
| Zone A | Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Poitiers |
| Zone B | Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Caen, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Orléans-Tours, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg |
| Zone C | Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles |
Corsica, the overseas departments (Réunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Mayotte) and the international zones run on their own calendars. Private and international schools usually align with the public calendar but you should check directly with your school — some add extra training days.
2025-2026 school holiday calendar
The dates below are taken from the official ministerial calendar. Holidays start on the last day of class after school finishes (typically Friday afternoon or Saturday morning) and end the morning class resumes.
| Holiday | Zone A | Zone B | Zone C |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Saints' break (Toussaint) | 18 October – 3 November 2025 (all zones) | ||
| Christmas break (Noël) | 20 December 2025 – 5 January 2026 (all zones) | ||
| Winter break (Hiver) | 7 – 23 February 2026 | 14 February – 2 March 2026 | 21 February – 9 March 2026 |
| Spring break (Printemps) | 4 – 20 April 2026 | 11 – 27 April 2026 | 18 April – 4 May 2026 |
| Summer break (Grandes vacances) | From 4 July 2026 (all zones) | ||
Always cross-check the latest version on the ministry website at education.gouv.fr/calendrier-scolaire — minor adjustments can occur, especially around exams and end-of-year timing.
What "faire le pont" means in practice
When a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, French employees often "font le pont" — literally "make the bridge" — by also taking the Monday or the Friday off, turning the week into a four-day weekend. The day used for the pont is taken from paid leave or RTT credit, not granted automatically by the employer.
In May 2026, the calendar lines up unusually well: 1 May (Labour Day) is a Friday, 8 May (Victory Day) is also a Friday, and Ascension on Thursday 14 May invites a classic pont du jeudi. Many offices, schools and small services run a near-empty week. Practical consequences for expats:
- Town halls, prefectures and tax offices may be closed for four days at a stretch — schedule any French admin around the bridge ;
- Trains and motorways are heavily booked the evening before and the day after the bridge — book tickets two months out for predictable savings ;
- Children's activities (clubs, music school, sport classes) often pause during a long bridge week, even when public school is officially still in session.
The August closure: what really shuts down
Newcomers are routinely caught off guard by the scale of the August slowdown. Between mid-July and the last week of August, a large share of the French workforce takes its main holiday in one block, peaking around the 15 August public holiday.
In Paris and the larger cities you will see paper notes on shop windows reading "fermeture annuelle du 1er au 25 août". In smaller towns, entire high streets can be quiet for two to four weeks. Specifically, expect:
- Independent shops, bakeries and restaurants often close for two to four weeks — chains and supermarkets generally stay open ;
- Family doctors often pause their cabinet — most areas have a rota for the médecin de garde (on-call doctor) ;
- Pharmacies rotate via the pharmacie de garde system — every commune publishes the night and weekend rota on the door ;
- Public services (mairie, prefecture, CPAM) keep skeleton staff — expect double the usual processing time on any application filed in August ;
- Schools and créches are closed throughout July and August — many private and municipal summer camps (centres de loisirs) take over.
The flip side is that France-bound tourist hotspots — the south coast, the Alps, Corsica — fill up entirely in August. If you can shift to late June or early September, you avoid the worst of both phenomena.
Paid leave (congés payés) and RTT
Compared with the United States or the United Kingdom, French paid-leave entitlements are generous and split into two distinct buckets.
Five weeks of statutory paid leave
Every employee accrues 2.5 working days of paid leave per month worked, capping at 30 working days per year — roughly 5 calendar weeks. The leave year traditionally runs 1 June to 31 May, although collective agreements can align it with the calendar year. Unused days carry strict deadlines and are frequently lost if not taken — French law actively discourages cash buy-outs.
RTT: the 35-hour week's leftovers
When the 35-hour working week was introduced in 2000 (lois Aubry), companies were left with a choice: lower the working week to 35 hours, or keep a 39-hour week and compensate the extra 4 hours with extra days off. The latter is RTT (Réduction du Temps de Travail), and it typically yields 10 to 12 extra days off per year on top of paid leave for a 39-hour employee.
RTT is now optional and depends entirely on the company's collective agreement (convention collective). Some firms abolished it altogether, others kept generous schemes. You will not know the rules until you read your contract or your company handbook. One historical caveat: since the 2004 journée de solidarité, all employees work 7 unpaid hours per year (often deducted from one RTT day), originally tied to Whit Monday but now flexible. For more on French working conditions, see our guide to working in France.
Working on a public holiday
Working a jour férié is allowed in France but heavily framed by the Labour Code and by collective agreements. The basics:
- 1 May is the only mandatory closure — only essential services (hospitals, public transport, hotels, restaurants, broadcasting) can ask staff to work, and pay must be doubled ;
- For the other ten public holidays, the employer can require attendance ; salary is paid as usual unless the collective agreement provides for a premium ;
- Hospitals, fire stations, police, public transport, airports run normally with rotated shifts ;
- Many supermarkets and large stores open for half-days, except on 1 May, 25 December and 1 January where most close fully ;
- For employees under 18, working any public holiday is forbidden except in specific industries (hospitality, agriculture).
If you are unsure whether your contract allows the employer to schedule you on a holiday, the convention collective attached to your sector is the document to read first.