✦ zenith calendar · the france almanac
france's legal public holidays in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in a few plain paragraphs.
france is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds france's legal public holidays, the jours fériés, and on a phone set to france it starts lit.
easter monday, ascension day and whit monday follow a published easter table; the rest come round on their date every year, and a holiday on a weekend is not moved. alsace-moselle and the overseas departments keep days of their own that are not here. tap a holiday and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
gregorian · fixed dates, with the easter days from a published western easter table
le 11 novembre
11 november
the day france remembers the end of the first world war and, since 2012, all who have died for france in every war.
in every commune people gather at the monument aux morts; the names of the dead are read aloud, then come the wreaths, a minute of silence and the marseillaise. many wear the bleuet de france, the cornflower of remembrance.
noël
25 december
the day christians celebrate the birth of jesus christ, the son of god made man.
many go to midnight mass on christmas eve, and families share the réveillon, the great christmas eve meal. homes and churches set out the crèche, and the feast ends with the bûche de noël.
la fête du travail
1 may
the day of workers and their rights: the one holiday the law makes a day off for every employee, except where work cannot stop.
unions march through the cities. it is also the day of the muguet, lily of the valley: people give a sprig to those they love for luck and happiness.
la fête nationale · le 14 juillet
14 july
the national day of the french republic, which most french people simply call le 14 juillet.
in the morning a great military parade comes down the champs-élysées. on the nights of 13 and 14 july towns hold dances, many of them in the fire stations, and the evening ends in fireworks.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, france puts its holidays on their days on that ring, in mint. its mark is its flag, 🇫🇷.
each of its holidays carries three short paragraphs in its notes: what it is, where it comes from (for a national day, as france tells it), and how it is kept.
france arrives locked, so nothing in it changes by accident. the lock guards your hand, not your eye: you can still read it, shine it or eclipse it. one tap unlocks it, and then it is yours to rename, recolour or add to.
tap its chip in the legend to eclipse it (kept, but not drawn) and tap again to bring it back. nothing is deleted either way.
france shares one sky with your own commitments. like every almanac that comes with the app, it never counts toward the almanacs you can make for free, and it lives on your phone: zenith calendar has no server of its own.
✦ zenith calendar · the sky around it
france is a single layer. beneath it is a whole calendar drawn as the sky, your year an orbit round the sun, and every part of it answers your touch.
the sun stands at the centre and the year rings round it, with today's earth riding at today's place, its small moon beside it. tap the ring anywhere else and a faint ghost earth waits on that day.
drag along the ring and the days pass under your finger, the big date and the day's list following as you go. lift, and the day you stopped on stays picked.
tap the small moon beside today's earth and you dive into the week. the moon above shows its phase, named underneath; swipe the dates and each week brings its own.
tap the sun and the ring tips on its edge into a ladder of years. in the week, pull the moon firmly down and the month opens, the moon resting half off its foot.
zenith calendar has no server of its own. tap the gear and switch on "nothing comes in" or "nothing leaves this phone"; lift them, and every almanac is back exactly as it was.
france is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
france (country) ·
Yes. Armistice Day, le 11 novembre, is a public holiday; in 2026 it falls on a Wednesday. France remembers the end of the First World War and all who have died for France.
Yes. La fête du travail is the one holiday the law makes a day off for every employee, except where work cannot stop. In 2027 it falls on a Saturday.
Bastille Day, la fête nationale, is 14 July; in 2027 it falls on a Wednesday, with dances on the nights of the 13th and 14th.
No. In France a holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday is not moved to another day.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called france: France's legal public holidays, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. On a phone set to France it starts lit, and turning it on costs nothing.
No. It holds the legal public holidays kept across France. The days Alsace-Moselle and the overseas departments keep on their own are not part of it.