Hi there, Daniel!

Pretty common question amongst foreigners indeed. If you’ve traveled a bit, you may have realized that French tourists are everywhere. So it’s fair to assume that French people get a lot of vacation days. But how much is it exactly? Well, the annual leave entitlment in France is 5 weeks (25 working days) per year. It may seem like a lot, but actually, it is close to the EU’s average.

How does this work in practice?
The first thing to know is that in France, everyone gets the same amount of vacation per year, provided their all are full-time employees. For every month you work at a company, you will earn 2,5 vacation days, regarless of how long you’ve been working at the company.
You may have noticed that 2,5 is not a round number. This begs the question: how do people deal with half vacation days? They simply round them up: say you have 17,5 vacation days available and you want to take them all at once, then the company will have to round this number up to 18 days.

I think it’s important to say that according to the law, new hires have to work for a full year before they can start enjoying their holidays. In practice though, many companies will let you take a few days even during your first year at the company as long as you use common sense (maybe don’t ask for 2 weeks of holiday after four months at the company…).

What are the written and unwritten rules with vacation?
Let’s start with the obvious: you should always align your holidays with your boss and HR. They have the right to refuse or to ask you to change your plans in case there is a conflict with the company’s agenda, so don’t take a leave without having them both agreeing to it. In France, there is this thing called abandon de poste (duty abandonment) where you can be fired for not showing up to work for a few days without notice. You don’t want that to happen. Generally, companies ask for a 1 month notice to grant your holiday, so it’s best to plan in advance.
Also, contrary to some countries, there is no obligation to take your vacation days all at once, nor any minimum amount of days per leave. You can take them one day at a time, or all at once, or in any way you like. You will witness this flexibility during the month of May. There are so many public holidays in May that if the calendar is particularly favorable, it is common to see people getting a 2 week leave using only 4 or 5 vacation days.
Of course, you should always use common sense when taking a leave, be it long or short. Be responsible and always discuss your plans with your manager.

What about unpaid holidays?
Many foreigners don’t know this, but you can also request unpaid leave (Congés sans solde) to your company. You won’t receive any salary during this leave but you will keep your job. You can use this period to travel, carry out a personal project or take care of a child: there are no conditions as to who can use this benefit.
However, the company has no obligation to agree and you will probably have to sign a written agreement specifying the duration and return conditions.

The good news is that France and the USA have a bilateral agreement. This agreement ensures that your work history in both countries is considered when applying for retirement benefits. It also clarifies who qualifies and which country pays your pension in different situations. The question, then, is whether you meet the conditions of the agreement.

Looking at your situation, since you’ve worked in France for 9 years and the rest of your career in the USA (assuming minimal career gaps), you’d likely qualify for pensions from both the French and American social security systems when you reach the minimum requirements (credits in the USA and retirement age in France).

The France x USA agreement allows you to combine your work years in both countries to meet eligibility criteria. Without it, you might not have enough credits in either country to qualify for a pension. With the agreement, you can totalize your work years and apply for pensions in both systems.
If the pensions are granted, the French social security will pay for your pension relative to your 9 years working in France (in euros, on a French bank account) and the US will pay for your pension proportionally to your work years in the USA (in USD, on a US-based account).

You must be eligible to retirement in both country to receive both pensions
You must have earned at least 6 credits in the US to apply to the american social security system. For the French social security system, you must be eligible to retirement in order to apply for a pension. That means you must have a total of 166 to 172 trimestres or reach the legal retirment age to request a pension, regardless of how long you worked in either country.

What happens if you have worked in a third country in your carreer?
Things get more complex here (as if they weren’t already!). All agreements relative to social security between France and other countries are bilateral. It means that you may have to pick which biltateral agreement you which to base your pension request on. For instance, say that you have worked in the US for 10 years, in Japan for 5 years and have now been working in France for 10 years. In this case, your best option would be to use the bilateral agreement between France and the USA because it will let you sum up your 20 years of contribution in both countries. In order to make your rights for those 5 years in Japan count, you would have to invoke another agreement (France x Japan or Japan x USA) that will be less attractive.
There are exceptions though. Some bilateral agreements allow for a third country. As I am writing this anwer, such a deal exists between France & Brazil. It lets you include your work time in other countries like Germany, the US, Spain and a few other.