Christmas and New Year in France 2026: markets, pharmacies

The 2026 Christmas markets have already been announced in eight cities; the holiday transport timetables have not. We are Vibe South of France, a Russian-speaking community, and here we have put together what people ask in our chat every December: when and where the markets are, whether anyone works on 25 December and 1 January, where to find a pharmacy at night, whom to call for a doctor, and how Orthodox Christmas fits in. Everything was checked against official pages on 29 October 2026. If your town isn’t here, ask in the Vibe South of France chat: there are 700+ of us, the chat’s shared language is Russian, and quite often someone from your area already knows the answer.

Public holidays: what is a day off and what isn’t

Of the winter dates, France has two official public holidays (jours fériés), Noël and Jour de l’An, and Alsace and Moselle add 26 December. Christmas Eve and 31 December are not on the list: they are ordinary working Thursdays (service-public, card F2405).

A public holiday is not the same as a day off. The only day the law makes everyone take off is 1 May; 25 December and 1 January become days off if your collective agreement says so or your employer decides. If the day is off for you, your pay for it is not cut once you have been with the company for at least three months. And a pleasant detail of 2026: both dates fall on a Friday, so everyone who gets the holiday off has three days in a row.

In the civil service a public holiday is a non-working day “when service requirements allow it”, and hospitals keep running (card F24496). Whether your mairie, préfecture or tax office is open on 25 December and 1 January the card doesn’t say: check the office’s own website.

Shops are murkier. Card F22606 sets no general rule for public holidays; a ban applies only in Alsace and Moselle. There is a rule for Sundays: food shops may open until 13:00, while pharmacies, florists, kiosks and petrol stations have no time limit, and the mayor can let shops open on up to 12 Sundays a year. For the post office (La Poste) and banks on public holidays we found no official rule. Hence the simple advice: ask your shop, post office and bank about their hours on 25 December and 1 January well in advance.

Christmas markets 2026: dates and places

The table holds only what a town hall or a city tourist office has announced. Checked on 29 October 2026, Marseille and Avignon on 3 November; organisers may still shift the hours. In Montpellier the tourist office warns separately that access to the market depends on the weather, and the full programme is still “coming soon”.

A few details the table can’t show.

Lyon. The city’s tourism website still says the 2026 dates are to be confirmed, and in one place it gives 22 November instead of the 20th; we went with the town hall’s date. During the Fête des Lumières, 5 to 8 December, the market on Place Carnot closes earlier than usual: the closing time is set by the town hall and/or the préfecture.

Strasbourg. This is not one market but eight sites: Place Broglie (the Christkindelsmärik), Place Kléber with the big Christmas tree, the squares by the cathedral and at the Château, Petite France (place Benjamin Zix and Saint-Thomas), Place du Temple Neuf, the Rohan terrace with place du Marché-aux-Poissons, Square Louise Weiss and Place Grimmeissen. The contrast with the South is plain: Strasbourg closes on Christmas Eve, while Nice and Perpignan keep going until 3 January.

Montpellier. The tourist office gives the address as Promenade du Peyrou, rue la Blottière. On the Mondays of 30 November, 7 and 14 December the market is closed to the public; the other Mondays it is open. The nearest tram stop is Peyrou Arc de Triomphe (lines 4 and 5), and residents of the métropole ride the tram free with the Pass Gratuité (montpellier.fr).

Marseille, Avignon and Nîmes: the details

• Marseille. The Foire aux santons, the 224th edition of this fair of little Provençal figures for Christmas cribs, runs from 14 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 on the Quai du Port in the Old Port: Sunday to Thursday 10:00-19:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00-20:00, free entry (tourist office, 7 October 2026). The Christmas market by the Canebière had no 2026 dates as of 3 November; last season it stood there from 22 November 2025 to 4 January 2026.
• Avignon. The main Christmas market is back on Place de l’Horloge, by the town hall and the opera house: 28 November 2026 to 2 January 2027, Sunday to Thursday 11:00-20:00, Friday and Saturday 11:00-21:00; the town’s Christmas lights are switched on at 18:00 on 28 November (Avignon town hall). Besides that, on 4-6 December there is the small La Mirande market at 4 place de l’Amirande: Friday from 18:00, Saturday 11:00-23:00, Sunday 11:00-18:00.
• Nîmes. As of 3 November there is no official announcement of a 2026 market (we checked nimes.fr and the city’s events listings).

When they announce, we’ll add it. The quickest source of this kind of news is the people in the chat who live in the city.

On-duty pharmacies and doctors over the holidays

On the evening of 24 December, on 25 December and on 1 January, on-duty pharmacies (pharmacie de garde) and on-duty doctors are open. How you find them depends on the region.

• Occitanie (Montpellier, Toulouse, Perpignan, Nîmes): call 3237 or go to 3237.fr. The call costs €0.35 a minute. The RésoGardes system was set up by pharmacists’ unions, and the rotas are drawn up département by département (ARS Occitanie).
• Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: the number depends on the département. In Lyon (Rhône) it is the same 3237, €0.35 a minute; in Isère, home to Grenoble, and in Allier, Ardèche, Drôme, Haute-Loire and Savoie it is 0 825 74 20 30, €0.15 a minute. The ARS says on-duty pharmacies are there from 20:00, at weekends and on public holidays, and advises that if treatment can wait until the next day, it is better to go to your own pharmacy (ARS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes).
• Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (Marseille, Nice, Aix, Avignon): we could not confirm a single on-duty pharmacy number on an official page, so we don’t give one.

If you need a doctor rather than a pharmacy and it isn’t urgent, there is the on-duty doctor: the mairie gives the list of on-duty doctors and pharmacies (service-public, card F33954). If you need help fast:

The details on 15, 112 and on-duty doctors come from service-public card F33954, the advice about 15 from the ARS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes page. How the health fund and refunds for a consultation work, we explain in our guide to the Carte Vitale and health insurance.

Public transport over the holidays

As of 3 November 2026, none of the networks we checked had announced a holiday timetable for 24 December to 1 January: not TaM in Montpellier, not RTM in Marseille, not the liO regional trains in Occitanie or Zou! in PACA. We found no new December train timetable either. The Tisséo (Toulouse) and Lignes d’Azur (Nice) websites simply wouldn’t open for us that day.

We are not copying last year’s hours here: in 2026 they may well be different. Closer to the holidays, check your network’s website, and if you are travelling late on 31 December, check the last service on the day itself. If you are driving, fuel prices and toll roads are covered in our guide to petrol and roads in France.

Orthodox Christmas in France

Orthodox Christians in France have two Christmases. Parishes on the old (Julian) calendar celebrate it on 7 January 2027, a Thursday, and parishes on the new calendar on 25 December 2026, the same day as the French Noël. Of the two, only 25 December is an official holiday: 7 January is not on France’s list of public holidays, so you will need to ask for time off in advance to attend a service.

Our directory currently lists 230 Orthodox churches, chapels and monasteries across France. Which parishes in the South follow which calendar, what time the Christmas services were held in January 2026, and when Easter 2027 falls (2 May) are on our page Orthodox Calendar 2027 in France. Addresses are in the churches directory. Parishes publish their feast-day schedules closer to the date.

New Year with the community

Our New Year 2027 is still an idea: to see it in as a whole community in a big château in the mountains. Dates and place are still being worked out. There is no price and no château name, and we won’t invent them: as soon as the organisers decide, the announcement will go out in the chat, and a full page will appear on the site.

We don’t hibernate in winter. On 19 January 2026, for Epiphany, we took a dip in the sea at Carnon beach near Montpellier: the forecast promised +10 °C and clouds, the sea was rough, and tea and biscuits were waiting on the shore. The announcement that time ended with the line “It’ll be warm. Even if it’s cold”. Meetups like this take shape in the chat a week or two ahead, so keep an eye on it if you want to be the first to hear about the New Year one. All our past and upcoming meetups are in the events section.

Vibe South of France community chat on Telegram - holidays, meetups and New Year in the South of France

See also:

• Life in France: pros and cons, public holidays in 2026 and 2027
• Orthodox Calendar 2027 in France: Christmas, Easter
• Churches in France by city: addresses and services
• Epiphany sea swim at Carnon beach, 19 January 2026
• Carte Vitale and French health insurance
• Montpellier: housing, prices and community
• Toulouse: living and relocating
• Nice: living and relocating
• Marseille: living and relocating
• Lyon guide for Russian speakers
• Strasbourg guide for Russian speakers
• Russian-speaking community of southern France