Christmas lights on the Rue Faubourg Saint Honore in Paris. Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP. Although December 25th is a public holiday, not everything shuts down in France.

Christmas Day, December 25th, is an official public holiday in France, allowing families to travel, cook, and enjoy a leisurely meal without the rush of attending mass or other obligations.

Neighbors spotted a pool of blood outside the family’s door on Christmas Day and alerted police, who discovered the five bodies, Prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told reporters in the city of Meaux.

Join FRANCE 24 as we take a look at how we celebrate "Noël", or Christmas, in France. French people tend to have a big family lunch on Christmas Day, but the big event is in fact on Christmas Eve.

In France, kids place their shoes near the fireplace on Christmas Eve…Santa will fill them with sweets. Christmas Eve is a public holiday in the Czech Republic and Estonia.

Linda Grant brought the Pleasanton Weekly along as she visited various tourist spots, including the Eiffel Tower with her ...

A teenage skier was killed in an avalanche Christmas Day at Les Arcs, France, TF1, a French news outlet, reports. The boy was skiing with a group of six family members in an off-piste area of the ...

European Waterways’ new “Christmas Markets Cruise” sails across France’s Alsace-Lorraine region, with 20 Christmas markets in its seven-day itinerary.

Luxury hotel barge cruise company European Waterways has just introduced some new special itineraries visiting Christmas Markets Cruises in Alsace-Lorraine, France. These holiday-themed hotel barge ...

N ext year, Tauck’s ms Sapphire will embark on the company’s first-ever Christmas market cruises in France, which will ply ...

Although France is renowned for having generous holidays, when it comes to Christmas there is perhaps less time off than you might expect, and some services never stop. December 25th - which this ...

European Waterways’ new “Christmas Markets Cruise” sails across France’s Alsace-Lorraine region, with 20 Christmas markets in its seven-day itinerary.