France Public Holidays 2026
France has 11 national public holidays in 2026, starting with New Year's Day on 1 January 2026 and ending with Christmas Day on 25 December 2026. Three well placed days of leave buy 12 days away from work in 2026, because three holidays sit exactly one working day from a weekend.
| Holiday | Date | Weekday | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's DayNouvel An | Thursday | Public holiday | |
| Easter MondayLundi de Pâques | Monday | Public holiday | |
| Labour DayFête du travail | Friday | Public holiday | |
| Victory DayFête de la Victoire 1945 | Friday | Public holiday | |
| Ascension DayAscension | Thursday | Public holiday | |
| Whit MondayLundi de Pentecôte | Monday | Public holiday | |
| Bastille DayFête Nationale de la France | Tuesday | Public holiday | |
| AssumptionAssomption | SaturdayWeekend | Public holiday | |
| All Saints' DayToussaint | SundayWeekend | Public holiday | |
| Armistice DayArmistice 1918 | Wednesday | Public holiday | |
| Christmas DayNoël | Friday | Public holiday |
- Status
- Set in lawThe calendar is set in standing law rather than announced year by year, so 2026 needs no separate publication.
- Last verified
- The last full review of the dataset behind the France calendar. No correction specific to France has been needed since.
- Source
- date-holidays open dataset (ISC and CC BY 3.0), with no corrections needed for France.Always confirm official dates with a local authority before booking travel. How these calendars are built. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will check it.
The busiest stretch is May (4 holidays), a good window to plan around if you rely on offices, banks or schools being open. Two of them fall on a Saturday or Sunday in 2026, which is worth checking if you are counting on days off from work. Use the table below to see each 2026 holiday in France, when it happens and which day of the week it lands on. Regional and local observances are excluded, so what you see are the holidays recognised across France.
Frequently asked questions
How many public holidays does France have in 2026?
France has 11 national public holidays in 2026. The first is New Year's Day on 1 January 2026 and the last is Christmas Day on 25 December 2026.
What is the first public holiday of 2026 in France?
The first public holiday of 2026 is New Year's Day, which falls on 1 January 2026.
When is New Year celebrated in France in 2026?
In 2026, New Year's Day in France is on 1 January 2026.
Are regional holidays included for France?
No. This calendar lists national public holidays only, so it stays consistent across countries. Holidays that apply to just part of France are listed separately on the France holiday hub, together with the departments and overseas regions that observe them.
Do the France holiday dates change from 2026 to the next year?
Some of them do. Three of the 11 holidays in 2026 sit on a moving rule (linked to easter), so their date has to be recalculated for every year. The rest keep the same calendar date and only change weekday. Moving ones this year include Easter Monday on 6 April 2026, Ascension Day on 14 May 2026 and Whit Monday on 25 May 2026.
How far ahead is the France calendar actually fixed?
Through 2027. The holidays are set in law rather than announced year by year, so the dates repeat predictably. What can still change is a law amendment, a one-off holiday declared for a national event, and the exact day of any holiday on the Islamic calendar, which is confirmed by moon sighting. No corrections to the underlying dataset were needed for France.
Which France holidays are regional, and which move?
The table above is the national calendar for 2026. Some holidays keep the same date every year while others are tied to Easter, to a lunar calendar or to a named weekday, and some parts of the country add their own days off. The France holiday hub breaks that down: which holidays are fixed, which move and why, and which ones are observed in certain regions only. To compare France with other countries in the same year, see the 2026 worldwide overview.
Other years for France
Planning further ahead or looking back? Compare the France public holiday calendar across years:
Plan around the France 2026 calendar
Knowing the dates is half the question. The other half is what they add up to: which of them create a long weekend and how many working days the year leaves. The 2026 worldwide overview compares every country on holiday count and weekend overlap, and the country index ranks all 44 of them. The same figures are available as JSON, and the dates as a calendar file.