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The French school holiday dates you need to get in your diary

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
The French school holiday dates you need to get in your diary
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Millions of pupils will return to classrooms across France on Monday, but don't fear -- it will soon be the holidays again. Here are the dates for the next school year to get in your diaries (even if you aren't a parent).

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Parents in France who struggle to organise childcare during the holidays might be looking forward to the start of the school year on Monday.

But unfortunately for them it won't be long until the next school holidays - seven weeks to be exact.

As always in France certain school holiday dates depend on where in the country you are, specifically the vacances d'hiver (winter holidays in February and March) and the vacances printemps (spring holidays in April and May).

Education authorities in mainland France are divided into three zones as well as the island of Corsica (see map below).

Zone A (The authorities of Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Poitiers)

Zone B (Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Caen, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Orléans-Tours, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg)

 Zone C (Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles)

 

Holiday dates:

Return to school: Monday September 3rd

Vacances de Toussaint (autumn holidays): From Saturday October 20th to Sunday November 4th. Return to school: Monday November 5th

Vacances de Noël (Christmas holidays): From Saturday December 22nd to Sunday January 6th. Return: Monday January 7th

Vacances d'hiver (winter holidays) - Zone A -  From Saturday February 16th to Sunday March 3rd. Return: Monday March 4th

Zone B: From Saturday February 9th to Sunday February 24th. Return: Monday February 25th

Zone C: From Saturday February 23 to Sunday March 10th. Return: Monday March 11th

Vacances de printemps (spring holidays) 

Zone A: From Saturday April 13th to Sunday April 28th. Return: Monday April 29th

Zone B: From Saturday April 6th to Monday April 22nd. Return: Tuesday April 23rd

Zone C: From Saturday April 20th to Sunday May 5th. Return: Monday May 6th

Ascension holiday: Thursday May 30th, Friday May 31st, Saturday June 1st.

Summer holidays 2019: July 6th

Five French words to learn

Une académie - local education authority

Le calandrier scolaire - school calendar/term dates

les vacances - holidays

La rentrée - return to school

l'année scolaire - the school year

More

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