France’s eight weeks of summer holidays, or England's six? I’ve done both and know which one I prefer | Gillian Harvey

With vacations of up to 14 weeks on the continent, education can suffer – although on the plus side childcare and holidays are much more affordableRemember the summer holidays of your childhood – the seemingly endless, sunny days many of us look back on fondly? Those six “precious” weeks look very different when you’re a parent. Having to feed, entertain, look after and fund your offspring during the extended break can sometimes make the summer seem endless for all the wrong reasons.Parents in England where, as in Scotland and Wales, the school summer break is six weeks, have complained that this is too long, and are backing a reduction to four weeks. Pity then the parents in mainland Europe: French school holidays last for eight weeks. In some regions of Italy, summer is a whopping 14-weeks long. Having birthed and brought up my five children in France, only moving back to England in April last year when my eldest was 14 and my youngest nine, I’ve experienced summers on both sides of the Channel. And it will be no surprise that I prefer the six-week version.Gillian Harvey is an author and mother of five living in Norfolk. She is the author of The Village Café in the Loire Continue reading...

Comments

Similar News

Three things the UK must do to make its small-boats deal with France work | Letters

Disabled people want to live a full life. Instead, we’re forced to scrap over our right to food and a wash | Frances Ryan

PETER HITCHENS: Britain has become France's Rwanda as we usher ashore the migrants they don't want

Martin Rowson on Keir Starmer’s migration deal with France – cartoon

Britain, France and the necessary relationship

The Guardian view on Macron’s state visit: a renewed entente cordiale is good for France, Britain and Europe | Editorial

Here’s one way to make the Tour de France less predictable

Gerard Depardieu's sex assault convictions deliver a shameful reckoning for all France: JANE FRYER

Opinions

The unwatchably awful Stephen Colbert interview that proves why he was doomed: MAUREEN CALLAHAN delivers the real story... and unmasks America's most loathsome late-night host

FLOURISHING AFTER 50: I bought a house with my son - and now I'm paying for everything

TONY HETHERINGTON: Dad's £54,000 van has a brake fault but he can't get a refund

I did something awful in an Uber after my fiancé left the club early... He knew the truth the moment I kissed him when I got home: ASK JANA

I loathe Latham - and he hates me back. But there's an important detail about those vile allegations his critics in parliament have chosen to ignore. Do I really have to spell it out? PVO

PETER HITCHENS: Ukraine's the stupidest war in modern history. Darkness is closing in

The Biden administration secretly stole your data to engineer elections and silence speech

DAN HODGES: Keir Starmer's delusional if he thinks his morally bankrupt plan to let 16-year-olds vote will help him out. They'll NEVER vote for him

Don’t expect Zohran Mamdani — or any other mayoral candidate — to fix NYC’s troubled schools

Letters to the Editor: Trump might be right to pull funding for California's 'train to nowhere'

Trump deserves a decision on his fraud-ruling appeal — free of political foot-dragging

ALISON BOSHOFF: Market it like Meghan Markle! Duchess hopes to flog her brand...in the mall

What Snoop Dogg's weird and offbeat investment really means for Swansea - and the worrying truth behind clubs welcoming celebrities in, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Is consuming dairy like milk and cheese the cause of my bedtime problems? DR ELLIE reveals the surprising answer - and the cure

AMANDA PLATELL: This is the real scandal at the heart of the BBC that we are all being manipulated into ignoring. John Torode's sacking is just a distraction

Dimon’s delusional Powell support and more: Letters to the Editor — July 20, 2025

My best friend won't stop moaning, everything becomes a 'misery contest'. Should I walk away? This letter writer's more sad than they admit, replies BEL MOONEY... here's why

JESSICA BOULTON: Only one BBC icon's been UNFAIRLY 'cancelled' this week - and it's not John Torode

BORIS JOHNSON: Why Trump's really turning against Putin and Ukraine can now dare to dream of victory again

Voters’ Zohran Mamdani fears: Letters to the Editor — July 19, 2025

Perps with HUNDREDS of arrests make a mockery of New York’s criminal-justice system

ROBERT HARDMAN: Rocks, petrol bombs and cries of Allahu Akbar - and proof Starmer's new deal to stop the small boats is already doomed

Nix socialist supermarkets — and unleash capitalism to fix NYC’s food woes

After hitting rock bottom, colleges might be about to climb back up

JFK heir Jack Schlossberg is a sexist scumbag and worthless little pig. You'll be horrified when you read the squalid truth of his filthy obsession: KENNEDY

Behind the ‘boondoggle’ of Gavin Newsom’s high-speed rail dream

Donald Trump’s ‘dream’ Democrat, the left embraces radical Islam and other commentary

Hooray! Taxpayers will no longer have to pick up the tab for NPR, PBS’s lefty propaganda

With soft power and moral clarity, ‘Agent Melania’ flexes for the defenseless

Daniel Dubois has ripened from boyhood into the full-grown man… but Oleksandr Usyk remains the most fearsome puzzle in modern boxing, writes JEFF POWELL

Oleksandr Usyk is a tall mountain for Daniel Dubois to climb, but he CAN be beat - and the Brit will NOT make the same mistakes Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury made, writes JOHNNY NELSON

Letters to the Editor: Fire departments could work with residents to boost neighborhood resilience

Dishing out super-sized mortgages won't solve the problem of high house prices: SIMON LAMBERT

Letters to the Editor: Trump administration is cherry-picking science in cage-free-egg lawsuit

Labour's cynical and foolish move to give the vote to 16-year-olds will backfire. This is why... and who will actually benefit: STEPHEN GLOVER

Pinky ring demand is soaring, says jewellery expert DAN HATFIELD - do you have one tucked away worth a small fortune?

The thin line of good vs. bad plastic surgery

How many voters really care about Jeffrey Epstein?

Dallas laps New York City in the housing race — fueling the Texas boom

Martin Freeman's bitter legal row as he claims screaming children are ruining life at his £5million home: RICHARD EDEN'S DIARY

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Migrants are welcome - but not British schoolgirls in Union Jack frocks!

TOM UTLEY: The old lie that private schools are stuffed with posh, rich kids may turn into reality when Labour's VAT raid drives away strivers like the Utleys

QUENTIN LETTS: This timid, blinky burbler's eyes darted around. She would make a terrible shoplifter

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews The Great Fire of London With Rob Rinder & Ruth Goodman on CH5: How the Great Fire almost turned Pepys's £1k Parmesan into fondue

NY’s failed criminal-justice reforms have just claimed two more victims — when will the madness end?

Shane Gillis’ hilarious ESPYs set was a litmus test for our uptight culture

Douglas Murray: A 50-day deadline is 50 days to kill. Force Putin’s hand now

Zohran Mamdani is giving NYC businesses fair notice: He’s coming after them

Trump’s 50-day Russian sanctions pause will cost more lives — and achieve nothing

How Trump can mold the new Middle East in his own deal-making image

This week in whoppers: Newsom’s profanity-filled Trump complaint, Hunter’s election delusion and more

Pathetic media pretends the autopen was the scandal — not Biden’s brain

Trump’s pressure plan for Putin: Letters to the Editor — July 18, 2025

Europe is committing economic suicide with climate change cult

Letters to the Editor: A path outside of college shouldn't only be presented at less affluent schools

Letters to the Editor: Want to bolster DLTA? Make it easier for everyone else to get there

Copycat Harry is at it again... how many times is he going to pull the Mum card? William must be thrilled watching him pretend to be Diana: JAN MOIR

BRYONY GORDON: We must stop falling for Instagram and the influencers with their fake lives. It will make you feel nothing but despair

Letters to the Editor: State leaders must fill the environment void left by the Trump administration

SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: This Lions team is in for a rude awakening against Australia - and here's why