French Days 2026: official dates, next edition and how to shop smart

The autumn 2026 French Days run from Monday September 7 to Monday September 14, 2026 inclusive, according to the event's official website. The spring edition took place from Wednesday April 29 (7:00 am) to Tuesday May 5, 2026 (11:59 pm). The next edition, expected in spring 2027, has no official dates yet.

If you shop from French retailers, or simply want to understand what the "French Days" banners on French websites mean, this guide covers the calendar, how the event works, which categories deserve attention and how to check that a deal is really a deal.

When are the French Days 2026?

There are two editions every year, one in spring and one at the "rentrée", France's back-to-school season. Here is the 2026 calendar:

Edition	Start	End	Length
Spring French Days 2026	Wednesday April 29, 2026, 7:00 am	Tuesday May 5, 2026, 11:59 pm	7 days (over)
Autumn French Days 2026	Monday September 7, 2026	Monday September 14, 2026 inclusive	8 days

Worth knowing: the autumn 2026 edition came earlier than the previous one. In 2025, the autumn French Days ran from September 24 to 30. Anyone who pencilled in "late September" out of habit would have missed it this year.

Each retailer runs its own offers: some deals start before the official date, others are extended for a few days afterwards. Trust the conditions shown on each product page rather than the calendar alone. Times are French time (Paris).

When are the next French Days (spring 2027)?

As of this update, no official dates have been announced for the 2027 French Days. Websites already showing precise 2027 dates are publishing estimates, not a confirmed calendar.

What can be said with reasonable caution:

• Spring 2027: since the event launched in 2018, the spring edition has generally been held in late April or early May, often around the May 1 public holiday in France. A similar window is a sensible expectation, but not a certainty.
• Autumn 2027: the autumn edition was held in late September for years, yet the 2026 edition moved to early September. There is no way to predict the 2027 timing before the official announcement.

The simplest approach is to check the official French Days website (rejoindrelesfrenchdays.com) a few weeks ahead and to build your shopping list early, so you are not discovering prices on the day.

How do the French Days work?

The French Days were launched in 2018 by French online retailers to create a home-grown sales moment, separate from Black Friday and from the official "soldes" (France's legally regulated sales periods). The French Days are not a regulated sales period: they are a commercial event, and each participant runs its own promotions independently.

The founding members

Six retailers created the event: Boulanger, Cdiscount, Fnac Darty, La Redoute, Rue du Commerce and Showroomprivé. Around them, several hundred partner merchants join in depending on the edition, across very different sectors (tech, home, fashion, beauty and more).

What about Amazon?

Amazon is not one of the event's founding members. In practice, it often runs its own promotions over the same period, which is handy for comparison. But an Amazon deal shown during the French Days is not an official "French Days offer".

What the event does not include

There is no minimum discount imposed on all participants and no shared product list. How deep the discounts go depends entirely on each retailer, sometimes on each product.

Are French Days discounts real?

Not always. French law does regulate price-reduction claims: since May 28, 2022, the struck-through price must be the lowest price the seller charged in the 30 days before the reduction (article L112-1-1 of the French Consumer Code, which transposes the EU "Omnibus" directive). Our guide to the 30-day rule explains it in detail.

That rule curbs the crudest abuses, but it does not guarantee a good deal:

• a price may have been raised more than 30 days before the event, then "cut" during the French Days;
• some pages highlight a recommended retail price or a comparison price rather than the price the retailer actually charged, so read what is struck through;
• on marketplaces, the seller is not necessarily the retailer itself, and prices can differ from one seller to the next;
• a "reduced" price can still be higher than what another retailer charged last month.

For a quick set of checks, see how to spot a fake discount.

What is worth buying during the French Days?

Since participants are mostly tech, appliance, home and fashion retailers, those departments carry most of the offers. Here is a qualitative, category-by-category reading guide:

Category	Why it can be worth it	What to watch
TVs	Often genuine drops on last year's models	Compare with the price of previous months, not just the struck-through price (see when to buy a TV)
Laptops, tablets	Frequent offers from the founding retailers	Check the exact configuration: a close model can carry a very similar name
Smartphones	Mostly interesting for models that have been out for a few months	Freshly launched models are rarely discounted
Small appliances	Usually well represented (vacuums, kitchen gear)	"Exclusive" bundles make cross-retailer comparison harder
Large appliances	Can pay off if the purchase was already planned	Factor in delivery, installation and old-appliance collection
Fashion, home, beauty	Offers from specialist retailers and flash-sale sites	Discounts sometimes based on reference prices that are hard to verify

Rule of thumb: a product whose usual price you already know is a far better candidate than an impulse find spotted during the event.

How to shop the French Days without getting caught out

The method takes a few steps, ideally started a few weeks before the event:

1. List what you actually need: two or three specific products (model, capacity, colour), not a vague category.
2. Note the current price at several retailers, with the date.
3. Look at the price history when available: it is the only way to know whether the French Days price is low or merely "less high". See our guides to Amazon price history and Cdiscount price history.
4. Set a target price before the event: that number decides, not the percentage on the banner.
5. Compare the final price, including delivery and any fees, and check who the seller is.
6. If the price is not right, wait: other big sales follow (Black Friday, the winter soldes), and prices can also drop outside any event.

For steps 2 to 4, a price tracker such as UniverTrack does the legwork: you paste a product link (Amazon, Cdiscount or another online store), it checks the price on a regular schedule, keeps a dated history and emails you when your target price is reached.

French Days checklist before you pay

• Is this exactly the model I wanted (reference, storage, model year)?
• Is the price below the lowest price I noted over the past few weeks?
• Is the struck-through price what this retailer actually charged, or a "recommended" price?
• Who is the seller: the retailer itself or a third-party marketplace seller?
• What is the total with delivery, installation or must-have accessories?
• What are the delivery times and return conditions?
• Would I buy this at this price without the countdown timer on the page?

French Days or Black Friday: should you wait until November?

If the autumn French Days did not give you the right price, Black Friday 2026 is the next major sales moment of the year. The two events are not quite alike: Black Friday draws a wider range of merchants, Amazon among them, while the French Days are built around a core of French retailers.

There is no universal answer to "which one is cheaper": it depends on the product and the retailer. The only reliable way to decide is to compare the French Days price with what you see afterwards, product by product. Keeping your products tracked in UniverTrack between the two events tells you whether November beats September, without rechecking every page by hand.