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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for France

The list of France bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

 © 1989-2008 Alter Ego Services

10 Nov 2008 (AFP-Paris) It has been reported that, following the lead of Luxembourg's Prime Minister, France's European Affairs secrétaire d'Etat, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, is about to propose that the May 8 public holiday commemorating the end of World War II be replaced by May 9, the Day of Europe. • 12 May 2008 (AFP + Le Figaro) France's Prime Minister, François Fillon, recently indicated that Parliament would consider making May 9th an annual public holiday in France (most likely replacing the current May 8th public holiday). • 24 Mar 2008 (EJP-European Jewish Press) The Jewish festival of Shavuot has been added to the Journal Officiel (the government's gazette). This does not mean that Shavuot festival will become a general public holiday in France, but as the festival falls in May or June annually (at the time of school final exams) Jewish students will now be allowed to take exams at different dates. • 29 Jan 2008 (Agence France Presse + La Tribune) Labour Minister, Xavier Bertrand, confirmed that Whit Monday would be restored as a fully national public holiday in France, starting this year, in 2008. The change will apply as well to all DOM-TOMs (French overseas territories and administrative regions). In addition, due to the extremely early date of Easter in 2008, Whit Monday, on May 12, will follow the Thursday, May 8, public holiday, meaning that one can expect many offices to be deserted on Friday, May 9, 2008. • 19 Dec 2007 (Le Monde) In a report he submitted late last week, Eric Besson, the Minister in Charge of the Evaluation of Public Policies, proposed that the Whitmonday public holiday be re-instated in France, and that each business be allowed to choose the public holiday it wishes to work on. • 24 May 2007 (L'Express) The newly formed center-right government has confirmed that there would be no change to the current observance of the Whitmonday public holiday in France. • 07 May 2007 (Our post of April 7) Last night's victory by center-right presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, means that the restoration of the Whit Monday public holiday (one of the Socialist Party's Manifesto promises), is unlikely. • 23 Dec 2006 The RATP (Paris Metro) has announced that it would extend service hours by one hour, from 01:15am to 02:15am, on Friday nights, Saturday nights, on holidays and on the eve of holidays. • 06 Dec 2006 The French Minister of Trade and Industry confirmed today that stores would be allowed to open on Sunday December 24 and Sunday December 31, 2006, except in 2 cities, Angers and Nantes, which took specific measures to forbid stores from opening on the day before Christmas 2006, and the day before New Year 2007. • 25 Oct 2006 The cabinet has decided that the 2007 presidential elections will be held on April 22, 2007, followed by an almost certainly necessary second round on May 6, 2007. The presidential elections will be followed by a two-round legislative assembly elections, on June 10 and June 17, 2007. Note that French overseas dependencies (DOM-TOMs) will cast their vote in the presidential election, the day before the vote in France. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the France public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: Official public holidays in France are regulated by Article L222-1 du Code du travail (Labour Code). • Weekend Public Holidays: Public holidays that occur on a weekend remain on that date (ie. they are not moved to another date, such as the following Monday, for example). • Regional Public Holidays: Public holidays are uniform across the national territory of France, with the exception of Alsace-Moselle, which was granted 2 extra public holidays, in 1892, when it was part of Germany. These 2 extra public holidays were retained when the region was given back to France at the end of World War One. Note that Alsace-Moselle includes the city of Strasbourg, the seat of the European Parliament. • Sunday Opening Hours: In France, a law dating from 1906 allows textile and fresh food stores to ask the local governments for permission to open on 5 Sundays during the year. Usually these requests are made when a major holiday, such as Christmas or New Year falls on a Monday, and hence the corresponding eve falls on a Sunday. Note however, that permissions, even within the 5 Sundays a year limit, are not automatic, and in fact some municipalities systematically refuse to grant such derogations to preserve the family life of employees of large supermarkets. • Whit Monday was no longer recognized as one of the public holidays as of 2005, to help fund health care for elderly persons following the high number of elderly deaths during the heat wave of the summer of 2003. However, it returned to the list of French public holidays starting in 2008. • May 8 was established as a public holiday in 1951, then cancelled in 1961 as a gesture of reconcilliation, and reestablished in 1981 by then President Mitterand under pressure from the communist party with whom he was in a coalition government. • National Holiday is based on the Fête de la Fédération, of 14 July (1790). Although it is often incorrectly referred to as Bastille Day, the celebration actually commemorates the holiday held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille (on 14 July 1789) and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy; other names for the holiday are Fête Nationale (National Holiday) and quatorze juillet (14th of July ). • Finally, although not a public holiday, no page on France would be complete without mentioning the 3rd Thursday of November as the date when the Beaujolais Nouveau is launched every year . • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Bank of France (France central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in France, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for France, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of France, before planning any trip to France. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.