Metropolitan France Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European ...

uses

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET i ...

(''heure d'Europe centrale'', UTC+01:00) as its standard time, and observes

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...

(''heure d'été d'Europe centrale'', UTC+02:00) from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. With its overseas territories,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

uses 12 different

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...

s (13 including its claim in Antarctica), more than any other country in the world.

Time zones

All parts of

Overseas France Overseas France (french: France d'outre-mer) consists of 13 France, French-administered territories outside Europe, mostly the remains of the French colonial empire that chose to remain a part of the French state under various statuses after ...

use different time zones from

.Decree no. 2017-292 of 6 March 2017 relative to French legal time
Légifrance, 8 March 2017 .

Summer time

follows the summer time schedule in Europe. Summer time starts on the last Sunday in March at 01:00 UTC, when local time changes from 02:00 (UTC+01:00) to 03:00 (UTC+02:00), and ends on the last Sunday in October at 01:00 UTC, when local time changes from 03:00 (UTC+02:00) to 02:00 (UTC+01:00).

Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...

follows the daylight saving time schedule of Canada and of the United States. It starts on the second Sunday in March at 02:00 (UTC−03:00), when local time changes to 03:00 (UTC−02:00), and ends on the first Sunday in November at 02:00 (UTC−02:00), when local time changes to 01:00 (UTC−03:00). Other parts of

do not observe summer time.

History

Before 1891, each town and city in

had its own time based on local

solar time Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Two types of solar time are apparent solar time (sundial ti ...

. In 1891, to avoid complications with railway timetables, time was unified in Metropolitan France and based on the solar time of Paris. In detail, the railway companies used a unified time which lagged behind Paris solar time by 5 minutes, for the benefit of non-punctual travellers. In 1911, Metropolitan France adopted

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

+0 (the solar time of

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

) as its official time, and used it until 1940 (with GMT+1 used during the summers from 1916 to 1940). In the summer of 1940, the German military authorities switched the occupied northern part of Metropolitan France to GMT+2 (German summer time), while the non-occupied southern part of Metropolitan France remained at GMT+1 (French summer time). The Vichy authorities kept GMT+1 (French summer time) during the winter of 1940–1941 and adopted GMT+2 (double summer time, which was the same as German summer time) in May 1941 in order to unify the railway timetables between occupied and non-occupied Metropolitan France. In 1942, 1943, and 1944 the whole of Metropolitan France thus used GMT+2 during the summer, and GMT+1 during the winter. At the

Liberation of France The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers of World War II, Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French R ...

in the summer of 1944, Metropolitan France kept GMT+2 as it was the time then used by the Allies ( British Double Summer Time). In the winter of 1944–1945, Metropolitan France switched to GMT+1, same as in the United Kingdom, and switched again to GMT+2 in April 1945 like its British ally. In September 1945, Metropolitan France returned to GMT+1 (pre-war summer time), which the British had already done in July 1945. Metropolitan France was officially scheduled to return to GMT+0 on November 18, 1945 (the British returned to GMT+0 in on October 7, 1945), but the French government canceled the decision on November 5, 1945, and GMT+1 has since then remained the official time of Metropolitan France. In 1976, daylight saving time (summer time) was reintroduced in Metropolitan France for the first time since WW2 because of the oil crisis, and since 1976 Metropolitan France has thus been at GMT+1 (now UTC+01:00) during the winter and GMT+2 (now UTC+02:00) during the summer. In 1996, daylight saving time was harmonized throughout the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

by Directive 2000/84/EC, which moved the end of DST to the last Sunday in October. A proposal to repeal this directive and require that member states observe their own choice of time year-round from 2021 is going through the legislative process . A non-binding public consultation showed that approximately 59% of respondents would prefer France to apply year-round summer time (UTC+02:00), with 37% in favour of year-round winter time (UTC+01:00) and 4% expressing no preference. Since GMT (now UTC) is Metropolitan France's "natural" time zone, its use of UTC+01:00 in winter can be seen as a form of

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

in winter, while Central European Summer Time ( UTC+02:00) can be seen as a form of "double summer time."

Notation

References

{{Europe topic, Time in

Time zones

Summer time

History

Notation

See also

References