France time now, live flip clock
Clocks in metropolitan France read CET, UTC+1 through the winter months. In summer they read CEST, UTC+2. Seconds included, the clock above runs live on that time.
Time zone in France
An Interior Ministry answer describes Paris as the capital and the seat of all public authorities. This page's clock and comparison table are set to Paris. Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse share its zone, so their clocks match the capital's all year.
- CET, UTC+1
- CEST, UTC+2
- Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse
When the clocks change in France
Clocks in France change twice a year.
Sunday 25 October 2026
3:00 AMto2:00 AM
Sunday 28 March 2027
2:00 AMto3:00 AM
How many hours ahead or behind Paris
On 24 October 2026, London is 1 hour behind Paris.
| City | Difference from Paris |
|---|---|
| London | 1 hour behind |
| New York | 6 hours behind |
| Los Angeles | 9 hours behind |
| Toronto | 6 hours behind |
| Casablanca | 2 hours behind |
| Dubai | 2 hours ahead |
| Kolkata | 3 hours 30 minutes ahead |
| Tokyo | 7 hours ahead |
| Your time zone | Detected after this page loads |
How France defines and keeps legal time
- A base time and one added hour
- +1 h
- A decree sets France's base legal time by reference to Coordinated Universal Time. The IMCCE, at the Paris Observatory, quotes its text. In the metropolitan departments, legal time is that base plus one hour. Summer time raises the addition to two hours. An answer to a written question in the National Assembly names two earlier decrees that set legal time.
- UTC(OP) and the talking clock
- UTC(OP)
- The Paris Observatory has its own Coordinated Universal Time, called UTC(OP). Scientific teams at LNE-SYRTE produce it. The Observatory calls it today's reference for French legal time. The talking clock, run by Orange and housed at the Observatory, broadcasts that time scale. It is locked to a SYRTE hydrogen maser. A ministry answer in the National Assembly described a draft decree to define legal time in France. It also aimed to confirm LNE-SYRTE as responsible for producing and spreading French legal time, from BIPM data.
- Paris meridian time and what replaced it
- 9 min 21 s
- Late in the nineteenth century, French legal time became the time of the Paris meridian. The time zone database notes that the law could take force only the day after its publication. A law passed before the First World War then set legal time behind Paris mean time. That law stayed in force for most of the twentieth century. A decree replaced it, defining legal time as Coordinated Universal Time plus or minus a whole number of hours. The Paris Observatory notes that the meridian no longer sets legal time.
- Summer time and the world wars
- Summer time first appeared in France during the First World War, the IMCCE says. The time zone database keeps France's standard time at Greenwich until June, early in the Second World War. One source it cites, Le Corre, says Paris stuck with occupied France's time after the liberation. The database follows a different source on that point.
- What two million participants chose
- 59.17 %
- The National Assembly's European affairs committee ran an online consultation on the clock change. It counted 2,103,999 participants. On the choice of time zone, most respondents picked summer time. Winter time drew 36.97 %.
Questions about time in France
What time zone is France in?
Metropolitan France is on Central European Time, written CET, during the colder half of the year. For the warmer months its clocks move to Central European Summer Time, CEST. Belgium, Germany, Italy and mainland Spain show the same time as France in both seasons.
When do the clocks change in France?
Summer time starts on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October. Both moves happen at one in the morning by the base legal time, which follows Coordinated Universal Time. On French clocks, two becomes three in spring, and three becomes two again in autumn.
Will France stop changing its clocks?
Not until EU law changes, and it has not. The European Commission's proposal would end seasonal clock changes across the Union. France would then decide its own standard time. The European Parliament has adopted its position, which supports a stop. The procedure file still awaits the Council's first-reading position, so French clocks keep changing each spring and autumn.
Does this page show the time in Réunion or Tahiti?
No, this page follows the zone of metropolitan France, which Monaco shares. The database's zone table lists overseas places as separate entries, such as Cayenne, Martinique, Réunion, Nouméa and Tahiti. The EU summer-time directive does not apply to the overseas territories of member states.
What is the time difference between France and the UK?
London is 1 hour behind Paris all year. Britain changes its clocks on the same Sundays and at the same moment as France. Lunch at one in Lyon is noon in London, in January and in July alike.
What is the time difference between France and the US?
New York sits 6 hours behind Paris, and Los Angeles 9 hours behind it, for most of the year. American clocks change two or three weeks sooner in spring and one week later in autumn. During those weeks, both gaps are an hour narrower.
Time zone names for developers
| IANA zone | Standard time | Daylight saving time |
|---|---|---|
| Europe/Paris | CET, UTC+1 | Yes |
Sources
We checked each fact on this page against these sources on 16 October 2026. Times, offsets and clock changes come from the time zone database.