The Month of May in France is famous for bank holidays!! So what a good oportunity for me to enumerate them all and how they work compare to Great Britain.

First of all, we have more than you BUT if it falls on a Sunday, tough luck!! We don’t have “in lieu”. And in fact this Month of May is terrible as 2 of them are on a Sunday!! I don’t work Sundays so I lose 2 bank holidays. Two of them are on the Thursday: Ascension on the 26th and Bastille day so French people do what we call the Bridge- “Faire le Pont” in French means you take the Friday off to bridge to the week end!! Note that some bridges can be bigger than others!! Especially if the bank holiday falls on the Wednesday!!

List of bank holidays in France for 2022:

1st of January: New year day.

18th of April: Easter Monday (always on a Monday), sadly no Good Friday in France.

1st of May: Fête du travail- Labour day. Yes we have a day off to celebrate work!!

8th of May: Victoire 1945-Armistice of the second world war

26th of May: Ascension (Always a Thursday)

06th of June: Pentecote (Always a Monday)

14th of July: Fête Nationale- French national day to celebrate start of French revolution when people stormed the Bastille Prison in Paris.

15th of August: Assumption.

11th of November: Armistice 1918-celebrate end of First world war.

25th of December: Christmas. Sadly here again it’s on a Sunday!!