France Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in France right now. Maybe you have a call with someone there, a flight to catch, a match kicking off on French time, or someone to reach before their evening is over. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in mainland France and ticks forward every second, so there is nothing for you to work out by hand.

Mainland France keeps a single time zone, so this clock is good for the whole country, from Paris to Marseille. Wherever in the world you are reading from, it keeps itself right on its own, even across the days when the clocks change.

France changes its clocks twice a year

Here is the part worth knowing about French time. France does not stay on the same clock all year. The mainland uses Central European Time, CET, through the winter, and moves an hour ahead to Central European Summer Time, CEST, for the summer.

So there are two settings behind French time:

• CET, Central European Time. One hour ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 1. The winter setting, from late October to late March.
• CEST, Central European Summer Time. Two hours ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 2. The summer setting, from late March to late October.

The clock above follows whichever one is in force, so you do not have to track it yourself. The section further down spells out the dates if you ever need to work it out for a particular day.

What time zone France is in

Mainland France runs on Central European Time, the zone shared by a broad band of countries from Spain across to Poland. In the winter that is one hour ahead of UTC, and in the summer it springs forward to two hours ahead. The entire mainland keeps this one clock, with no regional differences.

But here is a record no other country can match. Counting its overseas departments and territories, France spans twelve time zones, more than any other nation on earth. They run from UTC minus 10 in French Polynesia in the Pacific, across French Guiana and the Caribbean islands in the Americas, through mainland France in the middle, and on to UTC plus 12 at the far edge in the Wallis and Futuna islands. So while the mainland keeps a single steady clock, the French Republic stretches right around the globe, touching almost every part of the day at once.

How to tell if France is on CET or CEST right now

France changes its clocks on two Sundays a year, and across the European Union those dates are fixed by law, Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements. Every member state changes together:

• Spring forward. On the last Sunday of March, the clocks jump ahead one hour. CET becomes CEST, and France goes from UTC plus 1 to UTC plus 2.
• Fall back. On the last Sunday of October, the clocks drop back one hour. CEST becomes CET again, at UTC plus 1.

So the rule is short. From the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October, mainland France is on CEST. The rest of the year, late October round to late March, it is on CET. Place today between those two Sundays and you have your answer.

Time difference from France to other places

These figures are for mainland France. The places that share Europe's daylight saving schedule stay a fixed distance away all year, while the ones that do not change their clocks can shift by an hour between the French winter and summer. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon in France.

A few quick examples

Let us run a few, so you can see how this works.

Say it is 12 noon in France. London is an hour behind all year, so 11 in the morning there. In the winter, New York is six hours behind, making it 6 in the morning on the US East Coast, while Mumbai is four and a half hours ahead at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Now a call to New York, which has one small catch. France and the US both change their clocks, but not on the same dates, so for a couple of short windows in spring and autumn the usual six hour gap briefly narrows to five. For anything that has to land exactly in those weeks, trust the live clock over the rule of thumb.

And a reminder on the overseas side. If you are reaching the French Caribbean or French Polynesia rather than the mainland, the figures above do not apply, since those territories sit on their own offsets hours away from Paris. The clock on this page is mainland time.

A couple of things about French time

Mainland France stretches across a fair range of latitude, so the length of the day varies with where you are. Around Paris in the north there are roughly sixteen hours of daylight at midsummer and about eight in deep winter, while the Mediterranean south sees a gentler swing, with shorter summer evenings but milder winter afternoons.

One quiet quirk is that France runs its clock a little ahead of where the sun would put it. The mainland lies west of the meridian its time zone is built on, so the sun is at its highest a touch after 12 noon by the clock in winter, and later still in summer on CEST. It is a small reason French evenings feel so long in the warmer months.

Other places on the same time

Plenty of cities keep the same time as mainland France on Central European Time. Here are a few to jump to:

• Paris time now
• Lyon time now
• Berlin time now
• Rome time now

Neighbouring Germany keeps the same clock too. And if it is the time zone itself you are reading up on rather than the country, the summer side is at CEST Time Now, and the global reference it is measured from at UTC Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in France right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. It shows mainland France, which keeps one time zone throughout. France changes its clocks, so it reads CET in winter and CEST in summer, and either way the time shown is correct.

Is France on CET or CEST right now?

Go by the dates. Mainland France is on CEST from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. The rest of the year, from late October round to late March, it is on CET. Find where today falls between those two Sundays and you will know.

How many time zones does France have?

The mainland is a single zone, Central European Time. But counting its overseas departments and territories, France spans twelve time zones in total, more than any other country in the world, from UTC minus 10 in the Pacific to UTC plus 12.

What time zone is France in?

Mainland France is on Central European Time, one hour ahead of UTC in winter and two hours ahead in summer. It is the same zone as much of mainland Europe, from Spain to Poland.

How many hours ahead of the UK is France?

One hour ahead, all year. France and the UK both change their clocks, but on the same dates, so the one hour gap between them never changes.

What is the IANA name for French time?

Mainland France is Europe/Paris in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. It runs on a single identifier for the whole mainland, and it is what drives the live clock on this page. The overseas territories have their own identifiers.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), home of the Europe/Paris identifier and the French overseas identifiers. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. Directive 2000/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on summer-time arrangements, which sets the last Sundays of March and October as the change dates across the EU. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2000/84/oj
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference French time is measured from. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time