Any question answered...

Before I book out almost my entire annual leave allocation on summertourtime, when's best for cycle touring Europe in summer in terms of avoiding school holidayers? I know UK is mostly from 24 July but no idea about France/Spain.

In France they have fairly fixed holidays and there are a few big weekends when everyone travels so you should avoid being on the road then/those weekends.

According to my mum, the big travel dates are around 14 July, 1 August, 15 August and 31 August (15-31 being the big 2 week shutdown I guess).

...also:
**
School Holidays**
Zone 1: 7 – 23 April
Zone 2: 21 April – 7 May
Zone 3: 14 – 30 April
**
The whole country: **
5 July – 4 September
1 Aug and/or 15 August.