In May, public holidays are linked. This does not mean that the National Education has planned prolonged weekends for children. And so their parents!
May is renowned for its many public holidays, with May 1 and 8. Most of the time, the Ascension Thursday also falls in May and sometimes even Monday of Pentecost. This will notably be the case in 2026, when these four holidays will take place during the fifth month of the year. For 2025, the ascent arrives on Thursday, May 29, while for Pentecost, it will be necessary to wait until June 8. Depending on the days of the week on which these rest fall, it is sometimes possible to make bridges.
For this year, it’s simple to remember: the three holidays take place for Thursdays, knowing that the ascent is still on a Thursday. But beware. Even if the parents have posed days of leave or RTT (they are even sometimes imposed by the company), students have no right to do all these bridges. It may be tempting to dry the lessons to your children, especially in kindergarten and primary. But know that it is prohibited, under penalty of a possible fine.
Parents who will not send their child to school are at risk of 750 to 30,000 euros fine and up to 2 years in prison, the school being obviously compulsory. Any absence must be justified with a valid pattern and make the bridge is not one. The authorized reasons are the disease, a solemn family meeting, such as a burial, or even a significant transport problem. Any other reason can be examined by National Education, as the government site specifies Service-public.fr.
This is why the three bridges that were announced in May 2025 will be reduced to little sorrow for parents. Whatever the area, the students will, in fact, have the right only at the Ascension Bridge. Magnanimous, National Education suspended the automatic courses on Friday 30 May and Saturday 31 May 2025. Four consecutive days are released.
That said, zone A (Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon and Poitiers) will be on spring vacation until 4 May included. Families living in the latter and who make the bridge of the 1st May will be able to enjoy their children, which is not the case for areas B and C which will have already returned to school.
However, everyone will be in the classroom on Friday 9 may. For children, it will therefore be necessary to provide day -to -day activities on public holidays in early May. The good news is that the 1st and the 8 May of next year will fall on Fridays.