So for 2009 we have.
- Thursday 1 January – New Year’s Day (Jour de l’An).
- Sunday 12 April – Easter (Pâques).
- Monday 13 April – Easter Monday (Lundi de Pâques).
- Friday 1 May – Labour Day (Fête du Travail).
- Friday 8 May – VE Day – WWII Victory Day (Fête de la Victoire 1945).
- Thursday 21 May – Ascension Day (Ascension catholique).
- Sunday 31 May – Whit Sunday (Pentecôte).
- Monday 1 June – Whit Monday (Lundi de Pentecôte).
- Tuesday 14 July – Bastille Day (Fête nationale).
- Saturday 15 August – Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Assomption).
- Sunday 1 November – All Saints’ Day (Toussaint).
- Wednesday 11 November – Armistice Day (Armistice 1918).
- Friday 25 December – Christmas Day (Noël).
The observant will notice that May has 4 of them and on June 1st there is another, in 2010 all 5 fall in May,the only saving grace (for those who find bank holidays disrupt the working week) is the fact the French don’t move the bank holiday if it already falls on a holiday (like the British do). BUT then there is the habit of “faire le pont”, so for instance the holiday on May 21st falls on a Thursday, everyone will take a day of holiday on Friday too, thus making a really “long weekend”, so much so that they will refer to these really long weekends as “petit vacances”.
This means that working in May is almost as disrupted as working in August. When I first moved to France I was not aware of these customs and found life to be rather lonely in the mountain village I live in on these weekends. Now I leave for the coast with everyone else!
