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France Public Holidays 2013

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Bank and Public Holidays for France

France bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for the first 3 months of 2013, 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.

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20 Feb 2012 (Le Figaro-Paris) France's National Assembly have overwhelmingly voted to approve a law which would amend the November 11 annual Armistice non-working public holiday into a public holiday commemorating France's dead in all past conflicts. • 12 Jan 2012 (TF1 News-Paris) French EELV presidential candidate, Eva Joly, has promised to declare Yom Kippur and the Feast of Sacrifice as non-working public holidays in France if she is elected President of France on May 6, 2012. • 05 Apr 2011 (Le Figaro-Paris) The French government is reportedly considering the conversion of another public holiday into a working public holiday to finance long-term dependency of the elderly population. • 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. • 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 (Q + + Blog-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. • 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 . • France International Codes FR and FRA (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .fr (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of France information and news: 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 (France maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in France), and Wikipedia (includes France commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

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 2013 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 worldwide public holidays news and updates page or subscribe to our free email newsletters.