French public and school holidays 2024

French public and school holiday dates 2024

Here’s to a happy and healthy New Year to you all. 

 

January is the perfect time to start planning your French travel adventures and to make the most of them, it’s always useful to know when the public and school holidays fall. Things have changed a lot in the twenty years since we’ve been living here, but in many areas of rural France, shops are still likely to be either closed or only open in the mornings on public holidays.

 

The school holiday dates in France are split into three zones and most of the holidays are staggered so not everyone is trying to hit the ski slopes or beaches at the same time, although be prepared for extra traffic on the roads on all Saturdays during the school holidays, or better still avoid driving on these days.

 

This summer Paris will be home to the Olympics, with 329 events over 19 days in 41 venues, which will mean a busy city, plus it’s all change for the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes. 

Here is my guide to all the French public holidays, school holidays and other notable dates, plus how they are celebrated here in France, for 2024. 

 

Public Holidays in France 2024

1^st January, New Year’s Day, jour de l’an 

31^st March, Easter Sunday, Pâques 

1^st April, Easter Monday, lundi de Pâques (note there is no Good Friday holiday in France unless you live in Alsace or Moselle areas)

1^st May, Fête du Travail (celebrated with lily of the valley)

8^th May, Victory in Europe Day, Victoire 1945 

9^th May, Ascension Day, Ascension (note schools will have an extra day off on Friday 9^th May for the bridge (pont see below)) 

20^th May, Pentecost Monday, lundi de Pentecôte

14^th July, Fête Nationale (a Sunday this year)

15^th August, Assumption Day, Assomption 

1^st November, All Saint's Day, Toussaint

11^th November, Armistice Day, Armistice 1918 

25^th December, Christmas Day, Jour de Noël (note there is no Boxing Day holiday in France on 26^th unless you live in Alsace or Moselle areas)

 

Faire le pont

Except for the holidays linked to Easter: Easter Monday, Ascension Day and Pentecost Monday, the above dates are the same every year and the holiday is always observed on the actual date rather than being moved to the nearest Monday (as the UK would do). Public holidays can therefore fall on weekends; to make up for this it is not uncommon for people to faire le pont (make a bridge) if a holiday falls on a Thursday (Ascension Day) or a Tuesday, by taking off the Friday or Monday to give themselves a four-day weekend. This leave will be part of their annual holiday entitlement, or the hours need to be made up, so while most businesses will be open on bridge days, some staff shortages can be expected. 

French school holiday zones 
https://www.vacances-scolaires-gouv.com

 

School Holidays 

 

Here are the dates for 2024:

The winter holiday is from 10^th February to 10^th March. 

Zone C gets the first two weeks, Zone A the middle two and Zone B the last two.

 

The spring holiday is from 6^th April to 5^th May. 

Zone C gets the first two weeks, Zone A the middle two and Zone B the last two weeks.

 

Thanks to Ascension Day falling on 9^th May, everyone is off for a five-day long weekend from Wednesday 8^th May (Victory in Europe Day) to Sunday 12^th May, with Friday being a bridge day.

 

The summer holiday for all zones is from 6^th July until 1^st September.

 

The October holiday for all zones is from 19^th October to 3^rd November.

 

The Christmas holiday for all zones is from 22^nd December to 6^th January 2025.

 

Other dates to note and celebrate

6^th January, Epiphany, celebrated in France with a Galette des Rois (see here)

10^th January, winter sales begin, soldes d’hiver. Sales are regulated in France and the winter sales will run from 10^th January to 6^th February 

 

2^nd February Candlemas day, Chandeleur, celebrated in France with pancakes (see here)

13^th February, Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras when carnival time begins in France and pancakes, or beignets (similar to doughnuts) are eaten.

 

24^th March, Palm Sunday, Rameaux a day where our local boulangeries bake something different (see here)

31^st March, clocks spring forward an hour to Central European Summer Time

 

1^st April, Poisson d’avril celebrated in France with sticky fish (see here)

 

26^th May, Mother’s Day, fêtes des mères

27^th May, National Resistance Day, journée nationale de la Résistance

31^st May, Neighbours’ Day, fêtes des voisins often celebrated in France with shared meals

 

6^th June, 80^th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy that will be commemorated with a number of events this summer 

16^th June, Father’s Day, fêtes des pères

21^st June, world music day, fête de la musique, celebrated with free concerts in towns and villages all over France

26^th June, summer sales begin, soldes d’été, and will run until 16^th July

 

29^th June to 1^st July, Le Tour de France, with a planned depart in Florence, Italy, and a finish in Nice, NOT on the Champs-Elysées in Paris because of preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

 

26^th July to 11^th August, Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the Opening Ceremony on 26^th July

 

12^th to 18^th August, Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, begins in Rotterdam and finishes in Alpe d’Huez, in the Alps

21^st and 22^nd September, European Heritage weekend, Journées Européennes du Patrimoine, many museums and other cultural sites will be open to the public, often organising special events, and with free or reduced price entry

 

27^th October, clocks go back an hour to Central European Time and Christmas will be with us before we know it

Free museum entry on the First Sundays of the month 

Did you know many national museums in France open for free on the first Sunday of the month? Whilst not exclusive, as there are often restrictions in July and August, and some museums will close for some of the winter months, this is certainly a secret worth knowing and we’ve had some interesting visits over the years, all for free. Note: not all museums are national and without the financial support from the government, locally or independently run places will not have the ability to offer free entries. If you fancy a cultural city break, it would be worthwhile checking the museum websites to see if they are taking part and plan your visit accordingly.

 

7^th January

4^th February

3^rd March

7^th April

5^th May

2^nd June

7^th July

4^th August

1^st September

6^th October

3^rd November

1^st December

 

I hope you’ve found this useful and that wherever in France 2024 takes you, you have a wonderful time. I’d love to hear about your adventures and new discoveries.

 

  

Advent Day Nine - addicted to gloves

Just some of my glove/mitten collection

Advent Day 9

I think I might have a bit of a glove addiction. Once again, we found ourselves out shopping today. I know for many, this would be considered a treat and a great way to spend the day, but I am not a shopper. Next week is shaping up to be a busy week, with five days’ work in the calendar for Adrian and something different every day for me, so stocking up on food was a necessity that couldn’t be avoided and with Christmas on the horizon, we did a bit of browsing around too. 

 

The first shop we found ourselves in was the sports chain Decathlon, as they had a promotion on some must-have gloves. This week has seen our temperatures drop to 0º, with crisp frosty mornings and icy winds that cut right through you. We both suffer with cold fingers when cycling in the winter and mine especially don’t need it to be that cold before the Raynaud’s kicks in and my blood refuses to flow to my fingertips. These deathly yellow digits are no use whatsoever. They can’t grip the handlebars, squeeze the brakes, or do anything useful, and they hurt.

My new glove/mitten combos

 

I have thin under gloves, thermal gloves, thick padded gloves, chunky hand-knitted mittens, fingerless gloves, and silly gloves. Sometimes I wear more than one pair of gloves at a time and the fingerless ones are great indoors. What I didn’t have, until today, was thick, warm glove/mitten combos. These beauties are fingerless gloves with a fold-over mitten top and will be just perfect on bike rides. The mittens will keep my fingers toasty and warm, but if I need to my fingers to take a photo, I won’t have to keep taking my gloves on and off. In extreme cold, I can even wear my thermal under gloves as well and they have a clever magnet to keep the mitten top from flapping back.

In French a glove is un gant (a masculine word), but a pair of gloves is une paire de gants as the word for pair is feminine. 

 

Stay warm this weekend, my friends. We are hoping to get a bit of cycling in as we both have a few more kilometres to ride to meet our year end targets, but at least we’ll have warm fingers.

 

Cycling in the Ardeche

Me in the Ardeche September 1998

This time next week we will be off on our bikes again exploring the craggy terrain of the Ardeche, an area we first visited in September 1998 as a young married couple, a mere five months after our wedding. We didn't even own bikes then, but have fond memories of the week we spent in a rural gite in St Julien Labrousse and of touring the area in Gizmo, our Mini Cooper that we still own and enjoy road trips in France with. 

Adrian in the Ardeche September 1998

Looking through our photo albums (remember them) we look young, we have no grey hairs, but if I’m honest we are probably fitter now than we were then. It would be many years later when Adrian would reignite his love of road bikes and I would discover a love of cycling, but our love of France and especially rural France was already there. We are really looking forward to returning, re-living a piece of our youth and rediscovering this area with our bikes.

On Saturday Adrian will be taking part in the Ardéchoise, which will be the biggest organised cycle event he has so far taken part in. The small town of St Félicien will host over 16,000 cyclists for this four-day event that is now in its 25th year. With courses for adolescents, cyclo-tourists and sportives there is something for all levels. 

Course profile of Le Doux - look at those hills!

Adrian has signed up for Le Doux an 85km route around Le Doux valley that climbs 1,525m on hills that will be far more challenging than anything we find here in south Deux Sèvres. This event is exactly half the distance of the Prudential Ride London Surrey 100 he is doing at the end of July and will be great practice for the three big climbs he will have to tackle in the Surrey hills.

On Sunday we will take the tourist steam train from Tournon-sur-Rhône up to Lamastre in the hills and after a small detour down memory lane to St Julien Labrousse, we will start cycling the Dolce Via, a 50km cycle route that takes you from the Ardeche hills to the River Rhône via safe off-road pathways that is perfect for family cycling. We will then complete a section of the Via Rhôna, the cycle route along the Rhône from the Swiss Alps to the Mediterranean, to return to Tournon. For me at least, the cycling and the distances shouldn’t be too challenging and add in a spot of wine tasting, Côtes du Rhône has always been one of our favourites, and it is looking to be a rather nice few days away from home.

Wine tasting with Gizmo Tain L'Hermitage 1998

Wine tasting with Gizmo at the same place, revamped in 2008

For more information about the Ardéchoise event see here and for cycle routes in the Ardeche see Freewheeling France here.

Thanks to the generosity of our family and friends we have already managed to raise £433 on our Prudential Ride London Surrey 100 Just Giving fundraising page. If you would like to give Adrian a virtual cheer on and give his training a morale boost you can make a donation by clicking on this link. We would love to raise £500 for Epilepsy Action. Many thanks.

This post has been linked to the Dreaming of France blog link up at An Accidental Blog. See here for more posts including a cover reveal for a new novel set in France.

World Cup 2014 Exclusion Zone

This is what we think of football

Like a contagious virus, World Cup fever is contaminating our TV ads, Internet news feeds, radio stations, supermarket shelves and TV cookery programmes, and it's not even kicked off yet. But do not despair, I'm here to help. Join me on the blog, on Facebook and on Twitter for all things fun, French and football free.

I appreciate how lucky I am to have a husband and teenage son, and neither of them have any interest in football at all. I did have a boyfriend many years ago who was so obsessed with all things football, it was a contributing factor to our splitting up. I upgraded to the superior football-free model and since then I don't think I've seen a match. So I am opening my doors and inviting you in, if you are in need of a place to escape to. I will have recipes to busy yourself with in the kitchen, books to lose yourself in, photos to amuse and more.

I can't promise a totally sport free zone as I'm looking forward to The Tour de France in July. I am hoping to catch some of the action live and my author friend Julia Stagg has kindly agreed to a Tour de France guest post to coincide with the start in Yorkshire, close to where she lives. My first top tip to escape football fever is to get yourself a set of Julia's books set in the Pyrenees. With a humourous look at French village life, fresh mountain air, lots of laughs, passion, suspense and no mention of football, these four books should keep you entertained for plenty of matches.

The Tour de France

Our photo from the 2012 Tour de Poitou-Charentes

We are not a sports mad family. We do enjoy an active and outdoor lifestyle, but none of us could explain the ‘off-side rule’ and we conveniently manage to miss football and rugby on TV even if it is World or European cup games. The tennis also passes every year without us feeling the need to watch a single match. However, last year Ade and I found ourselves tuning into ITV4 every evening to watch the Tour de France coverage and we are counting down the days (seven) until the start of the 100^th Tour begins in Corsica on June 29th.

 Last year the terminology and the rules were a bit of a mystery to us and while we are still not experts we have grasped the basics and here is our little summery in case it is all a bit confusing to you too. Full information can be found on Le Tour website and don’t forget whether you understand it all or not, if you do tune in you will get to see some lovely areas of La Belle France.

The Teams.

Each of the 22 teams are made up of nine cyclists and despite it looking like it is a ‘one man and his bike’ sport the teams work hard together and for their team leader. The lower ranking members put team tactics ahead of personal triumph, support their leader and are referred to as domestiques. They help to pace the team leader and ensure he is where he needs to be for the best chance of victory.

The Peloton.

www.letour.fr

This is the main body of cyclists who group together during the race. This helps with pace and wind resistance. There are always some who drop behind the main peloton and others who will breakaway often in an attempt to win a stage.

The Stages or étapes.

The Tour de France is a race made up of 21 stages, one stage per day and with only 2 rest days in the 23 days. This year these stages will cover a total of 3,404 km and are made up of 7 flat stages, 5 hilly stages, 6 mountain stages, 2 individual time trials and 1 team time trial. The time trial days are against the clock and do not include group or peloton riding. The Tour takes in different areas of France each year, often includes an overseas stage (next year this will be in Yorkshire), but always visits the Alps, the Pyrenees and finishes on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, where Mark Cavendish has crossed the finish line first for the last four years.

The Yellow Jersey.

This is awarded at the end of each day to the person who has the fastest time overall. This may not be the winner of the current days stage, he is known as the stage leader or la tête de course. It is possible for the Yellow Jersey to change many times during the race or, like last year when Bradley Wiggins stormed it, for it to remain with the same rider for many days.

The other Jerseys.

As well as the Yellow Jersey, there are other jerseys awarded for different ‘wins’ during the race. The red Polka Dot Jersey is awarded to the King of the Mountains, the rider who gains the most points from the mountain climbs that day. The White Jersey is presented to the rider under 25 who has been awarded the most points each day and the Green Jersey is for the leader of the general points. Points are awarded during the day for individual sprints as well as stage wins.

La Caravane.

This is a publicity convoy that drives the route about an hour before the cyclists pass by, adding to the excitement of the crowd and enabling the sponsors to throw advertising merchandise at them.

The thing that struck me most last year was the awe I felt for the stamina of the cyclists who often cover over 200km a day, day after day. Compared to the pampered lifestyles of the professional footballers with their orange, plastic wives who manage 45 minutes of play before they need a rest, the cyclists (in my opinion) are real sportsmen. The Tour de France is tough, but it is only one event in their sporting year, some have already competed in a similar event in Italy and others will go on to do the Spanish tour too. Our British riders do us proud and I hope Mark Cavendish continues to triumph in Paris and wish him and Chris Froome all the best. Chris was second to Sir Bradley Wiggins last year, who managed to retain the Yellow jersey day after day and then became the first EVER British cyclist to win, and I’m sure Chris and Mark have their sights set high this year.