Public holidays in France, 2026
France observes 11 nationwide public holidays in 2026. After weekends and those holidays are removed, the working year comes to 252 days.
Every public holiday in 2026
| Date | Day | Holiday | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day Jour de l'an |
Nationwide |
| Mon, 6 Apr | Monday | Easter Monday Lundi de Pâques |
Nationwide |
| Fri, 1 May | Friday | Labour Day Fête du Travail |
Nationwide |
| Fri, 8 May | Friday | Victory in Europe Day Victoire 1945 |
Nationwide |
| Thu, 14 May | Thursday | Ascension Day Ascension |
Nationwide |
| Mon, 25 May | Monday | Whit Monday Lundi de Pentecôte |
Nationwide |
| Tue, 14 Jul | Tuesday | Bastille Day Fête nationale |
Nationwide |
| Sat, 15 Aug | Saturday Weekend | Assumption Day Assomption |
Nationwide |
| Sun, 1 Nov | Sunday Weekend | All Saints' Day Toussaint |
Nationwide |
| Wed, 11 Nov | Wednesday | Armistice Day Armistice 1918 |
Nationwide |
| Fri, 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day Noël |
Nationwide |
Working days month by month
| Month | Calendar days | Weekend | Holidays | Working days | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 9 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 4 | 17 | 136 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| Year | 365 | 104 | 9 | 252 | 2,016 |
Reading these figures
The working day count treats Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, which is the standard working week in France. Only nationwide holidays are deducted; a date observed in one region alone still counts as a working day here, because a national figure that moved with regional calendars would describe nobody accurately.
2 of this year's public holidays fall on a weekend and therefore add no time away from work: Assumption Day (15 Aug), All Saints' Day (1 Nov). Whether these are compensated with a substitute day depends on national rules rather than on the calendar, so confirm before planning around them.
The longest working month is March at 22 days; the shortest is May at 17. That spread of 5 days matters for anything billed or accrued monthly, which is why payroll and capacity plans that assume an even year drift by the end of it. The thinnest quarter is Q2, carrying 60 working days across April, May, June.
Compared with 2025, which held 251 working days, 2026 is 1 working day longer. Where a target is carried over from one year to the next unchanged, that difference is absorbed silently unless someone accounts for it.
Against the 204 countries covered here for 2026, France's 11 nationwide holidays put it below the median of 12, around the 38th percentile. The range across all countries this year runs from 3 to 49.
The holidays produce 5 breaks of three consecutive non-working days or more. The longest runs 3 days, from 4 April 2026 to 6 April 2026, built around Easter Monday. A further 3 working days are stranded between a holiday and a weekend, where one day of leave buys a break of four days or more. The full breakdown is here.
3 of this year's holidays sit on a different calendar date than in 2025: Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday. Dates that move cannot be carried forward from last year's planning spreadsheet, which is the most common way a holiday is missed.
Notes on France
French practice separates the list of public holidays from the right to be paid for them. Only
1 May carries a general statutory right to a paid day off for essentially all employees. The
remaining dates are non-working days for most people through collective agreement or custom
rather than through a blanket legal rule.
There is no general substitution when a holiday falls on a weekend, so the French working year
moves by several days depending on where the dates land.
Two things sit outside the national list. Alsace and Moselle retain two additional holidays,
Good Friday and 26 December, a survival of the period when the territory was under German
administration. And the concentration of holidays in May produces the pont, the bridge day taken
between a midweek holiday and the weekend. Bridges are leave, not holiday, and are not deducted
here, but May staffing rarely matches the figure on this page.