The 2023 school summer holidays are currently in full swing but the government has already revealed the full school calendar for the upcoming 2023 - 2024 school year. Use our at-a-glance chart at the end of this article to see the dates easily.
Alongside the public holidays that fall during the week (such as May 1, May 8, and August 15 next year), pupils also have three half-term school holidays.
The breaks are two weeks each, and are in addition to a two-week Christmas break and an eight-week summer break that starts in July.
Nationwide, children will return to school soon on Monday September 4, 2023, and certain holidays such as Christmas and summer breaks fall at the same time for all, the dates for which are:
The November holiday: Saturday October 21 to Sunday November 5.
The Christmas break: Saturday December 23 to Sunday January 7.
In addition, next year’s summer holidays will start on Saturday July 6, 2024.
The other two-week breaks – the February and Easter holidays – fall differently depending on where the school is located. This is to help France deal with the influx of holiday-makers in popular spots, including ski resorts, over the shorter holiday periods.
The three school zones
Schools are split into three regions – A, B, C – to better manage the holiday flow.
Each zone contains roughly the same amount of schoolchildren.
Zone A covers the regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
Zone B covers the regions of Brittany, Normandy, Hauts-de-France, Grand-Est, Pays de la Loire, Central-Val de Loire, as well as Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the south east.
Zone C covers the Occitanie region alongside the capital Paris and the Île-de-France region.
The changing February and Easter holiday dates are listed below:
February and Easter holidays
Below is a list of the two-week February holidays for each zone:
Zone A: between Saturday February 17 and Sunday March 3
Zone B: between Saturday February 24 and Sunday March 10
Zone C: between Saturday February 10 and Sunday February 25
Here is a list of the Easter holidays for each zone:
Zone A: between Saturday April 13 and Sunday April 28
Zone B: between Saturday April 20 and Sunday May 5
Zone C: between Saturday April 6 and Sunday April 21
You can see a chart with all of the information here:
Credit: VisActu / The Connexion
If you are looking to go on during February or Easter, you can use the map as a handy guide to note when destinations may be packed.
Note however, that just because one region is on holiday or not, does not mean tourist destinations will not be busy in those zones if other children are on holiday at that time – it simply means the schools are shut.
Corsica is an exception
The island of Corsica is however an exception, and is not in any of the defined school holiday zones.
Whilst the holidays for November, Christmas, and the end of the school year are the same as the rest of France, the holidays of February and Easter are different.
The February holiday correspond to Zone B and fall between Saturday February 24 and Sunday March 10.
The Easter holiday does not correspond to any zone, however, and falls between Saturday April 27 and Sunday May 12
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