Time in France now

Time zone in France

France uses a single time zone: Central European Standard Time (CET, UTC+1) in winter and Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2) in summer. Every clock in the country shows the same time.

Paris lies at 2.3° east, where mean solar time is UTC+0:09 (four minutes per degree of longitude). Standard time runs 51 min ahead of the sun, so on average the sun is highest at about 12:51 PM in winter and an hour later in summer.

Daylight saving time in France

Yes. France moves its clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM and back on the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM (local time).

The dates come from EU Directive 2000/84/EC, which makes every member state change at the same instant, 1:00 a.m. GMT. The plan to end the changes has been stalled in the Council since 2019; the daylight saving time page explains it.

All coming change dates are on the Europe/Paris page.

Clock history of France

The record begins with local mean time (clocks set by the sun, UTC+0:09 in Paris), which ended on March 15, 1891, when PMT (UTC+0:09) replaced it. Between 1970 and 2024, a daylight saving period began in 49 of the 55 years. The first summer time in the record dates from 1916. The table summarises the clocks of France year by year since 1970, from the tzdata entry Europe/Paris.

Rows from 2027 on follow the rules in tzdata 2026f; a government decision would change them in the next release.

Convert France time

Time difference between France and major cities

• In 2027, France is 5 h ahead of New York from March 14 to March 27 and from October 31 to November 6, instead of 6 h ahead of New York as during the rest of the year, because the two places change their clocks on different dates.
• In 2027, France is 8 h ahead of Los Angeles from March 14 to March 27 and from October 31 to November 6, instead of 9 h ahead of Los Angeles as during the rest of the year, because the two places change their clocks on different dates.
• In 2027, France is 9 h behind Sydney from March 28 to April 3 and from October 3 to October 30: the weeks between the two seasons, when one place has changed its clocks and the other has not yet.

Office hours and calls

With JavaScript on, this line shows how France’s office hours overlap yours today.

A 9-to-5 day in France overlaps New York’s for 2 h in January (3:00 PM–5:00 PM France time) and the same in July. At 9:00 AM in France it is 3:00 AM in New York.

A 9-to-5 day in France overlaps London’s for 7 h in January (10:00 AM–5:00 PM France time) and the same in July. At 9:00 AM in France it is 8:00 AM in London.

A 9-to-5 day in France overlaps New Delhi’s for 3 h 30 min in January (9:00 AM–12:30 PM France time), 4 h 30 min in July. At 9:00 AM in France it is 1:30 PM in New Delhi.

Neighbouring time zones

The nearest large cities on a different clock, with the straight-line distance from Paris and the difference now.

Same clock as France

These places keep exactly the same time as France all year under the current rules (zones Africa/Ceuta, Europe/Andorra, Europe/Belgrade, Europe/Berlin, Europe/Brussels and 10 more).

• BerlinDE
• MadridES
• RomeIT
• ParisFR
• HamburgDE
• BudapestHU
• WarsawPL
• ViennaAT
• BarcelonaES
• StockholmSE
• MunichDE
• MilanIT

Cities in France

• Paris

France at a glance

• CapitalParis
• Population68,720,337
• Time zone IDEurope/Paris
• Standard timeCET (UTC+1)
• Daylight saving timeCEST (UTC+2)
• Calling code+33

More time zones

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• Time zone converter