In your experience do bank holidays in France and Austria affect tourist sites and museums? Specifically, I'm looking at Whit Monday (6/6/2022 or 5/29/2023) in France and Feast of Corpus Christi (6/16/2022 or 6/15/2023) in Austria. My three planning stage itineraries all include France either in Paris or day trip to Chantilly and one itinerary includes Austria when we'd be in Salzburg.
As always, thanks for your help.
Edit: date of Whit Monday 2023 corrected.
Our experience with bank holidays in England is much like our national holidays in the US. Lots of business and some services are closed and the locals take advantage of the time off just as we do for Memorial day, Presidents Day, etc. You should expect much greater crowds than you normal would. We tend to avoid European holidays if we can. It is the day we do our laundry.
In France, WhitMonday is not that big a deal. Government offices, post offices, and banks are of course closed, and public transportation runs on a weekend schedule (I.e., less frequently).
Some things are closed every Monday anyway - some shops, restaurants, and sites have Monday as their normal closed day.
The really big holidays to worry about in France when things really close down are Christmas, New Year’s, and May 1.
Thanks Frank and Kim. It sound like it won’t affect our plans much. There are always work arounds or a stroll in the park.
I don't know about Austria but I do know that Whitmonday is a big thing in Bavaria, the southeastern most part of Germany (borders Austria).
I've experienced it in both Rothenburg ob der Tauber many years ago and Nuremberg and vicinity several times recently, and there is always something on....
I was in Vienna for Whit Monday one year and was thrown off. Some restaurants were closed, as were grocery stores (I had just arrived and wanted to get groceries for the week). I think most tourist sights were open, the issue was with groceries and restaurants.
Bank holidays haven‘t been a concern for me since the invention of the ATM. Before then, I always seemed to need to cash a travelers check on the holiday!
Thanks Nigel, Mira and Stephan. Spring dates are somewhat set. So the bottom line is have money and food or find a MacDonald’s that accepts Visa. A day to walk around to see the sites inside or out and people watch.
you won't starve in Bavaria. Always included street food, usually chicken and wurst, and bier.
Austria prob similar.
In many European countries national museums are usually closed on Mondays, but some of them open on public holiday Mondays and close on the Tuesday of that week instead.
