Metropolitan France usesCentral European Time (heure d'Europe centrale,UTC+01:00) as its standard time, and observesCentral European Summer 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 uses 12 differenttime zones (13 includingits claim in Antarctica),more than any other country in the world.
All parts ofOverseas France use different time zones fromMetropolitan France.[1][2]
Metropolitan France follows thesummer time schedule in Europe. Summer time starts on the last Sunday in March at 01:00UTC, 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).[1]
Saint Pierre and Miquelon follows thedaylight saving time schedule of Canada andof 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).[4]
Other parts ofOverseas France do not observe summer time.
Before 1891, each town and city inMetropolitan France had its own time based on localsolar time. In 1891, to avoid complications with railway timetables, time was unified in Metropolitan France and based on the solar time at theParis Observatory — theParis meridian being approximately 2°20′ east of theGreenwich meridian, Paris mean solar time was 9 minutes 21 seconds ahead ofGreenwich Mean Time (GMT). 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.[5] In 1911, Metropolitan France adopted GMT+0 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). TheVichy 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.[6]
At theLiberation of France 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. 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.[6]
In 1976, daylight saving time (summer time) was reintroduced in Metropolitan France for the first time since WW2 because of theoil crisis,[citation needed] and since 1976 Metropolitan France has thus been at GMT+1 (nowUTC+01:00) during the winter and GMT+2 (nowUTC+02:00) during the summer. In 1996,[citation needed] daylight saving time was harmonized throughout theEuropean Union 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 as of March 2019[update].[7][needs update] 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.[8][needs update]
Since GMT (now UTC) is Metropolitan France's "natural" time zone, its use ofUTC+01:00 in winter can be seen as a form ofdaylight saving time in winter, while Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) can be seen as a form of "double summer time."[9]
