France Business Day Calculator
Calculate jours ouvrés in France with the 11 national jours fériés preselected. The calculator excludes Lundi de Pâques, Fête du Travail, Fête de la Victoire 1945, Ascension, Lundi de Pentecôte, Fête Nationale, Assomption, Toussaint, Armistice, and Noël. Use it for LME payment-term checks, URSSAF declaration windows, Banque de France reporting, and any clause measured in jours ouvrés français.
How French business days are defined
The Code du travail recognises three day types. Jours calendaires count every day, jours ouvrables count Monday through Saturday excluding the jours fériés, and jours ouvrés count Monday through Friday excluding the jours fériés. Older statutes still use jours ouvrables for paid leave entitlements, but most payroll software, bank settlement files, and supplier contracts run on jours ouvrés, which is the convention this calculator implements. When a clause cites jours ouvrables instead, treat the calculator's output as a Monday-Friday proxy and add the relevant Samedi offsets manually.
The 11 national jours fériés in this calculator come from Article L3133-1. Alsace-Moselle has historically observed Vendredi Saint and the Saint-Étienne (26 December) under the Concordat-era code local. Bercy publishes the Pont convention each year for civil servants, and many private firms follow it informally, but those bridge days are not statutory and are not treated as holidays here.
French national jours fériés
The 11 national jours fériés:
- Jour de l'An (1 January)
- Lundi de Pâques (Monday after Easter)
- Fête du Travail (1 May)
- Fête de la Victoire 1945 (8 May)
- Ascension (39 days after Easter, always a Thursday)
- Lundi de Pentecôte (50 days after Easter)
- Fête Nationale (14 July)
- Assomption (15 August)
- Toussaint (1 November)
- Armistice 1918 (11 November)
- Noël (25 December)
France does not shift jours fériés to substitute weekdays when they fall on a Saturday or Sunday. If your contract grants a journée de solidarité instead of, or in addition to, Lundi de Pentecôte, the Code du travail is silent on the exact date and treatment is left to the convention collective. How we determine holidays →
Common use cases in France
The 60-day LME cap on inter-business payment terms is calendar-based, but finance teams almost always check the next jour ouvré for transfer execution. URSSAF déclarations sociales are due on the 5th or 15th of the month, and Article R243-6 pushes a 5th or 15th that lands on a non-business day to the next jour ouvré. Banque de France publishes its prélèvement and virement settlement calendar based on jours ouvrés bancaires, which align with the national jours fériés used here.
Public-sector contracts under the Code de la commande publique run on a 30-day calendar payment cap, with Trésor public processing on jours ouvrés. Litigation under the Code de procédure civile uses jours calendaires for most deadlines, but Article 642 rolls a deadline that ends on a Samedi, Dimanche, or jour férié to the next jour ouvrable. The pont du jeudi pattern around Ascension and 8 May routinely compresses delivery windows in May, which is worth checking against any SLA penalty clause.
For informational purposes only
This calculator provides general estimates based on business day counting rules. It does not constitute legal advice. Deadlines in legal, regulatory, or contractual matters may be subject to jurisdiction-specific rules, court orders, or statutory exceptions. Always verify critical deadlines with a qualified professional.