French school holidays are the periods when schools in France, and all the pupils in them, have a holiday. The dates are fixed nationally by the Ministry of Education for a period of three years. Holiday dates are given as a Saturday date "after classes", as some schools have lessons on Saturday mornings, and return on a Monday morning. The fixed dates can lead to over-crowding in tourist resorts such as the Mediterranean coast and the ski resorts, and price increases and availability problems in travel and accommodations.
To alleviate this problem, holiday schedules for the "winter" and "spring" holidays in February and April, respectively, are staggered by dividing the country into three zones, notably to relieve pressure on the skiing resorts. Nevertheless, the synchronized school holiday schedules still cause some crowding effects as families head to popular holiday locations, especially in the summer at the beginning and end of the months in July and August when the traffic jams are a regular feature of the news bulletins.
Read more about French School Holidays: Zones, Corsica and Overseas Departments and Territories
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