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French School Calendar 2015/16

Wednesday 02 September 2015

La rentrée scolaire started in France this week, with holiday dates for the winter and spring terms varying by geographic zone.

There are 36 weeks of schooling each year in France, separated by 4 holiday periods.

In the interests of traffic and tourism management the country is divided into different geographic zones for school term and holiday dates.

The primary aim of this division is to ensure that there is no negative impact on the economy of the ski resorts in the Alps.

Around 30% of the annual income from tourism in France is brought in by the ski resorts, which have suffered in recent years over the spring period by the positioning of school holiday dates at the end of April/beginning of May. To deal with this problem the spring holiday has now been brought forward.

There has also been a substantial change to the zoning this year, to reflect the reorganisation of the regional tier of government, which reduced from 22 to 13 the number of regional councils.

The following graphic shows the three new zones:

  • Zone A - Orange
  • Zone B - Blue
  • Zone C - Green


  • The school calendar for 2015/16 for each of these zones is shown below:

    School Term and Holiday Dates 2015/16
    Holidays Zone A Zone B Zone C

    Académies:
    Besançon, Bordeaux,
    Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon,
    Grenoble, Limoges,
    Lyon, Poitiers
    Académies:
    Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Caen,
    Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes,
    Nice, Orléans-Tours, Reims,
    Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg
    Académies:
    Créteil, Montpellier, Paris,
    Toulouse, Versailles
    Start of School TermClasses start Monday 1st Sept
    All Saints Holiday End of classes Saturday 17th Oct
    Classes return Monday 2nd Nov
    Christmas HolidayEnd of classes Saturday 19th Dec
    Classes return Monday 4th Jan 2016
    Winter HolidayEnd of classes Saturday 13th Feb
    Classes return Monday 29th Feb
    End of classes Saturday 6th Feb
    Classes return Monday 22nd Feb
    End of classes Saturday 20th Feb
    Classes return Monday 7th March
    Spring HolidayEnd of classes Saturday 9th April
    Classes return Monday 25th April
    End of classes Saturday 2nd April
    Classes return Monday 18th April
    End of classes Saturday 16th April
    Classes return Monday 2nd May
    Summer HolidayEnd of classes Tuesday 5th July
    Classes return Thursday 1st Sept

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