School holidays in France: 2024 and 2025

If you are a parent living in France, you’ll need to mark the school holiday dates in your diary to make holiday plans or childcare arrangements. School holidays in France spread across the seasonal and festival periods. However, for some, the exact dates are determined by what regional zone you live in.

To find out when the holidays fall, read on to learn about:

School holidays in France

The French Ministry of National Education (Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale) sets the dates for the school holidays in France. French schools have five holidays throughout the year:

• All Saints’ holiday (Vacances de la Toussaint)
• Christmas holiday (Vacances de Noël)
• Winter holiday (Vacances d’hiver)
• Spring holiday (Vacances de printemps)
• Summer holiday (Vacances d’été)

The breaks are usually around two weeks each, apart from the summer holidays, which last about eight weeks.

France splits schools into three different regional zones. Dates for the winter and spring holidays vary across the three zones. The zones are as follows:

Zone	Regions
Zone A	Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, and Poitiers
Zone B	Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Caen, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Orleans-Tours, Reins, Rennes, Rouen, and Strasbourg
Zone C	Creteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, and Versailles

International schools in France generally follow the same holiday dates as other schools, although there may be some variation within individual schools. To be sure, check with your child’s school for full details.

School holidays in France are an occasion for families to get together for festivities such as Christmas in France, enjoy local day trips or plan fun activities for kids. Other French festivals such as Bastille Day may also occur during the school holidays.

French school holiday dates 2023–2024

Holiday	Zone A	Zone B	Zone C
All Saints’ break	21 October – 5 November 2023	21 October – 5 November 2023	21 October – 5 November 2023
Christmas break	23 December 2023 – 7 January 2024	23 December 2023 – 7 January 2024	23 December 2023 – 7 January 2024
Winter break	17 February – 3 March 2024	24 February – 10 March 2024	10–26 February 2024
Spring break	13–29 April 2024	20 April – 5 May 2024	6–22 April 2024
Summer break	6 July – 1 September 2024	6 July – 1 September 2024	6 July – 1 September 2024

French school holiday dates 2024–2025

School resumes for all French zones on Monday September 2, 2025 for the 2024-2025 school year. Students will then have the following breaks:

Holiday	Zone A	Zone B	Zone C
All Saints’ break	19 October – 4 November 2024	19 October – 4 November 2024	19 October – 4 November 2024
Christmas break	21 December 2024 – 5 January 2025	21 December 2024 – 5 January 2025	21 December 2024 – 5 January 2025
Winter break	22 February – 9 March 2025	8–23 February 2025	15 February – 2 March 2025
Spring break	19 April – 4 May 2025	5–21 April 2025	12–27 April 2025
Summer break	5 July 2025	5 July 2025	5 July 2025

A full calendar can be found via the Ministry of National Education.

Additional holidays and days off

France has 11 public holidays during the year, some of which fall within school holidays. Labor Day (1 May) is the only statutory paid holiday in France. For other public holidays that fall on school days, you will need to check with your school to see if this is treated as a holiday.

There may also be additional school-specific days off throughout the year, including:

• Development days
• Pupil book days
• Staff training

Again, check with your school so that you can plan ahead for these. You can also look on your school’s website as many publish yearly calendars.

Childcare during French school holidays

There is a robust system of childcare in France available to working parents. Here are some of the options you can look into to prepare for the French holidays:

• Holiday centers (centres de vacances): For working parents of school-age children, there are state-supervised recreational holiday facilities available. These typically offer accommodation. There are also leisure/recreation centers (centre de loisirs in French) that offer daycare.
• Private holiday camp: Private camps are more expensive than state provision, but can be a good place for kids to meet other children from various countries as well as learn/improve their French. Providers include Jeunes Diplomates, which runs summer and winter language camps in the French Alps.
• Professional childminders (assistantes maternelles), au pairs, and babysitters: These offer childcare either in your home or on their own premises.

Costs vary between regions and centers, although discounts are available for those on low incomes. Check with your local school or regional educational department for full details of what is available in your area, when, and for how much.