The French enjoy 11 national jours feriés (holidays) annually. The civic calendar was first instituted in 1582; Bastille Day was incorporated in 1789, Armistice Day in 1918, Labor Day in 1935, and Victory Day in 1945. During the month of May, there is a holiday nearly every week, so be prepared for stores, banks and museums to shut their doors for days at a time. It is a good idea to call museums, restaurants and hotels in advance to make sure they will be open.

Trains and roads near major cities tend to get busy around the national holidays. Not coincidentally, this also happens to be the time when service unions (such as transporters, railroad workers, etc.) like to go on strike — something of a tradition, in fact. Travelers would do well to check ahead, particularly when planning a trip for the last week of June or first week of July!

There are also many regional festivals throughout France which are not included in our calendar. ViaFrance hosts an excellent site which lists fairs and festivals, traditional ceremonies, as well as sporting events, concerts, and trade shows for all regions throughout France. Use the interactive search form below to choose a region and range of dates for a listing of special events, to help plan your itinerary.

Under the law, every French citizen is entitled to 5 weeks of vacation. Most of the natives take their summer vacations in July or August, and many major businesses are then closed. All of France takes to the roads, railroads, boats, and airways. Consequently, traveling in France during August is generally not recommended for foreigners.

Public Holidays

1 January	New Year's Day (Jour de l'an)
1 May	Labor Day (Fête du premier mai)
8 May	WWII Victory Day (Fête de la Victoire 1945; Fête du huitième mai)
14 July	Bastille Day (Fête nationale)
15 August	Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Assomption)
1 November	All Saints Day (La Toussaint)
11 November	Armistice Day (Jour d'armistice)
25 December	Christmas Day (Noël)
26 December	2nd Day of Christmas (in Alsace and Lorraine only)

Moveable Feasts

Religion: Christian (Western)

Feast	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Good Friday*	10 April	2 April	22 April	6 April	29 March	18 April
Easter (Pâques)	12 April	4 April	24 April	8 April	31 March	20 April
Easter Monday	13 April	5 April	25 April	9 April	1 April	21 April
Ascension (l'Ascencion)	21 May	13 May	2 June	17 May	9 May	29 May
Pentecost (la Pentecôte)	31 May	23 May	12 June	27 May	19 May	8 June
Whit Monday	1 June	24 May	13 June	28 May	20 May	9 June

Footnotes:

A traditional galette des rois

*In Alsace and Lorraine only.

In years when Ascension Day concurs with Victory Day, we mark only the former, thus ignoring the latter.

Metal workers have the holiday of St. Eloi, July 24 (Festival of St. Eloi - French Basque).

When a holiday happens to fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, many French workers may take the Monday or, respectively, Friday, off as well. This is not official and does not apply to institutions such as banks or government, but is sufficiently commonplace to cause difficulties doing business on occasion.

Other Special Celebrations (non-national holidays)

On Epiphany (the first Sunday after January 1), many families in Provence follow a tradition of eating the gâteau des Rois — or the galette des Rois in the northern half of France and Belgium. This is a kind of king cake, with a trinket — usually a porcelain or plastic figurine of a king, or a fava bean (la fève) — hidden inside. A lucky person who gets the piece of cake containing the trinket is crowned King (or Queen) for a day.

The cakes can be found in most French bakeries during the month of January, and are accompanied by a paper crown. The galette consists of flaky puff pastry layers with a dense center of frangipane (made from or flavored like almonds), while the provençale gâteau is a crown-shaped brioche with candied fruits (fruits confits).

Conducting a search for events is easy with this form. Simply choose a category (or ALL) and a range of dates; this is required or the form will not be processed. Important: observe French convention of day/month/year, i.e.: DD/MM/YYYY. Your search can encompass all of France, or you can narrow it down to a region (suggested). Selecting a province will display events for all departments within that region. (If you select a department, it is not necessary to select the province.) To search for events by city or town, please pay attention to spelling! Keywords (such as "jazz", "dance", etc.) are optional. If your search yields no results, expand your search criteria and try again. Clicking "Search" will open a new browser window above this one. When finished viewing ViaFrance event listings, close that window to return to this document.

ViaFrance Events Search Form All categories Carnivals Ceremonies & Commemorations Concerts, Operettas, Raves Conventions & Conferences Exhibits & Expos Flea Markets Holidays & Festivals Sporting Events Theatre, Dance, Circus Trade Shows & Fairs Other Spectacles & Soirées From:  To:  In all regions Alsace Aquitaine Auvergne Brittany Burgundy Centre Champagne-Ardenne Corsica Franche-Comté Ile-de-France (Paris) Languedoc-Roussillon Limousin Lorraine Midi-Pyrénées Nord-Pas-de-Calais Normandy Pays de la Loire Picardy Poitou-Charentes Provence & Riviera Rhône-Alpes DOM-TOM (Ovrseas Depts.) In all departments 01 Ain 02 Aisne 03 Allier 04 Alpes de Hautes Provence 05 Hautes Alpes 06 Alpes Maritimes & Monaco 07 Ardèche 08 Ardennes 09 Ariège 10 Aube 11 Aude 12 Aveyron 13 Bouches du Rhône 14 Calvados 15 Cantal 16 Charente 17 Charente Maritime 18 Cher 19 Corrèze 2A Corse de Sud 2B Haute Corse 21 Côte d'Or 22 Côtes d'Armor 23 Creuse 24 Dordogne 25 Doubs 26 Drôme 27 Eure 28 Eure et Loire 29 Finistère 30 Gard 31 Haute Garonne 32 Gers 33 Gironde 34 Hérault 35 Ille et Vilaine 36 Indre 37 Indre et Loire 38 Isère 39 Jura 40 Landes 41 Loir et Cher 42 Loire 43 Haute Loire 44 Loire Atlantique 45 Loiret 46 Lot 47 Lot et Garonne 48 Lozère 49 Maine et Loire 50 Manche 51 Marne 52 Haute Marne 53 Mayenne 54 Meurthe et Moselle 55 Meuse 56 Morbihan 57 Moselle 58 Nièvre 59 Nord 60 Oise 61 Orne 62 Pas de Calais 63 Puy de Dôme 64 Pyrénées Atlantiques 65 Hautes Pyrénées 66 Pyrénées Orientales 67 Bas Rhin 68 Haut Rhin 69 Rhône 70 Haute Saône 71 Saône et Loire 72 Sarthe 73 Savoie 74 Haute Savoie 75 Paris 76 Seine Maritime 77 Seine et Marne 78 Yvelines 79 Deux Sèvres 80 Somme 81 Tarn 82 Tarn et Garonne 83 Var 84 Vaucluse 85 Vendée 86 Vienne 87 Haute Vienne 88 Vosges 89 Yonne 90 Territoire de Belfort 91 Essonne 92 Hauts de Seine 93 Seine Saint Denis 94 Val de Marne 95 Val d'Oise City/town:  Keyword:

French Festival & Holiday Links

Calendrier des Fêtes Dr. Liliane Fucaloro at California State Polytechnic University maintains a page detailing every state and religious holiday in France, month by month. (in French only) Calendrier Scolaire The French Ministry of Education maintains this handy web site which lists all the school holidays and vacations for every region of France — including overseas territories — for the current academic year and the next three years. (in French only) Christmas Traditions in France & Canada A team of several dozen individuals has assembled this wonderful resource, which follows the development of French holiday traditions over the centuries, and explores how many of these customs were imported to the new world. Festivals & Special Events Courtesy of ViaFrance, you can browse our calendar of upcoming special events, arranged by province — including conferences, exhibits, theatrical performances, regional culture, fairs & festivals, religious celebrations, sporting competitions, and much more. Francophone Holidays & Traditions "TBob" — Robert Peckham of the University of Tennessee at Martin's French Dept. faculty, has assembled this collection of links to sites on French leisure, festivals, and religious celebrations. Glossary of Holiday Traditions Marie-J. Ponterio at SUNY/Cortland presents an illustrated guide to French traditional celebrations, how they are observed and what to wish someone on a particular holiday. (in French only) Nice/Côte d'Azur: Fêtes et Traditions The Festival of Saint Peter, patron saint of fishermen, and the Festival of Saint John, celebrating the longest day of the year, are examples of the many folkloric traditions observed in this part of France. (in French only) Noël en Provence Provençal folklore is reflected in certain Christmas holiday traditions which are unique to this area, including regional dishes and santons figurines. (in French only) Send Holiday Greetings Yahoo! France lets you choose from hundreds of e-postcards to send your friends, family, and colleagues a colorful, musical greeting for almost any holiday. Yahoo! France — Links to French Holidays Yahoo! France boasts hundreds of links to French web sites about les jours feriés.

Suggested Reading & Music

Babar à la Fête de Celesteville by Laurent de Brunhoff. Reading level: Ages 4-8. Hardcover, published in January 2000 by Hachette. Not rated. Chants de Noël (Music CD) Features 18 traditional French Christmas songs, by various artists. Released September, 1998 by Empire Records. Not rated. Christmas in France (Christmas Around the World) by Kristen Thoennes. Hardcover, published in January 1999 by Hilltop Books. Rated 4 stars by readers. Christmas in France by Corinne Madden Ross. Hardcover, published by McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books. Rated 4 stars by readers. Gallantry: Dizaine des Fêtes Galantes by James Branch Cabell, Louis Untermeyer (Introduction). Paperback, published in October 2001 by Wildside Press. Not rated. Noëls de France (Music CD) Features 19 traditional French Christmas songs, including several which are endemic to the regions of Auvergne and Provence. Released in May 2000 by Arion. Not rated. On the Road Around Normandy, Brittany and the Loire Valley: Driving Holidays in Northern France by Roger Thomas and Lucy Koserski (Editors). Paperback, published by McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books. Rated 5 stars by readers. Vacances: The Ardèche — Activity and Leisure Holiday Guides Paperback, published in August 2002 by Hachette Livre Direction Paris. Not rated. Vie de France: Sharing Food, Friendship, and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley by James Haller. Paperback, reissued in June 2003 by Berkley Publ. Grp. Rated 5 stars by readers.

Nominate A Site!

French Festivals & Holidays Do you know about a great French festival or holiday site we should list here? If so, please submit it! Are you an author, educator, student or traveler who would like to write an article for the enjoyment of our francophile community? Please download our author's guidelines (48K PDF). Thank you!