French school holidays

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.

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. [http://www.education.gouv.fr/pid184/le-calendrier-scolaire.htmlv]

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.