French school holidays are the periods when schools, and all the pupils at them, have a holiday. They are scheduled at a particular time each year, by the Ministry of Education. This can lead to over-crowding in tourist resorts such as the Mediterranean coast and the ski resorts.
To alleviate this problem, the holiday schedules are staggered by dividing the country into three zones. Despite these measures, the synchronised school holiday schedules still cause some crowding effects, as families head to popular holiday locations, all at the same time. This can result in price increases and availability problems, in some locations, during the school holiday periods.
Holidays are divided into 3 separate zones except for the first 2 holidays: All Saints and the Christmas / New Year.
Contents |
Distribution of holidays
The Summer holidays
The summer holidays officially begin in early July but this varies depending on student age and type of school attended:
students in elementary school begin their summer vacation in early July. [in french 'école élémentaire']
secondary school students (who have no examinations) begin their summer holidays early June (lycée) or in end of June (collège). Secondary education in France
All students, whatever their age or type of school start school in early September.
Zones
The three zones (A, B and C) dictate when a school at a particular location, will have its holiday. The zones are not contiguous areas of France, but are designed to split the population evenly. [1]
Zone A
Zone A includes Caen, Rennes, and Nantes in the North East, Toulouse, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Grenoble and Montpellier in the South, and Nancy-Metz in the North East.
Zone B
Zone B includes Lille, Rouen, Amiens, Reims, Strasbourg, Besançon, Dijon, Orléans-Tours, Poitiers, Limoges in central France (but excluding Paris) and Aix-Marseille and Nice in the South East.
Zone C
Paris and Versailles, Créteil along with Bordeaux in the South West.
 |
This France-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
