Paris, France · UTC+2
Convert time from Paris
Paris is in the Europe/Paris timezone (CET/UTC+1, shifting to CEST/UTC+2 during daylight saving time). Paris sits at 2 degrees east longitude, barely further from the Greenwich Meridian than London is. By solar time, Paris noon and London noon should differ by about 9 minutes. Instead they differ by one hour in winter and two hours in summer. France uses Central European Time, not Greenwich Mean Time, a political decision made during Nazi occupation and never reversed after the war.
Before the German occupation of 1940, France used GMT+0 in winter and GMT+1 in summer, aligned with solar reality. The occupation government imposed GMT+2 to align with Berlin. When France was liberated, the government kept the offset, and every subsequent French government has kept it since. The result is that French solar noon in winter occurs at approximately 12:50pm rather than the clock’s noon. In summer, it arrives past 1:30pm.
France follows Europe/Paris: UTC+1 in winter (CET) and UTC+2 in summer (CEST), with EU standard daylight saving transitions.
how time shapes Parisian life
The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World’s Fair and has been lit at night since 1900. The light show that runs every hour on the hour after dark, on the hour in Paris time, has been a fixed reference point for the city’s evening rhythm for decades. The last show is at 1am.
Parisian restaurant culture runs late: dinner service rarely begins before 7:30pm, peak tables are at 8:30pm, and a table at 9pm is entirely normal. This is partly cultural, but partly a consequence of a timezone that puts solar sunset at nearly 10pm in midsummer.
9am in Paris is 8am in London.
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Questions about time in Paris
- What timezone is Paris in?
- Paris is in Central European Time (CET), using the IANA timezone
Europe/Paris. The standard UTC offset is UTC+1 in winter. During daylight saving time (summer), it becomes Central European Summer Time (CEST) at UTC+2. - Does Paris observe daylight saving time?
- Yes. Paris observes daylight saving time. In 2026, clocks spring forward one hour on Sunday, March 29 and fall back one hour on Sunday, October 25. During DST, the UTC offset shifts from UTC+1 to UTC+2.
- What is the current UTC offset for Paris?
- Paris is currently at UTC+2. It is currently observing daylight saving time.
- What is the time difference between Paris and New York?
- Paris is currently 6 hours ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Paris and London?
- Paris is currently 1 hour ahead of London. Both cities observe daylight saving time on the same schedule (last Sunday of March and October), so the gap stays consistent year-round.
- What is the time difference between Paris and Los Angeles?
- Paris is currently 9 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Paris and Tokyo?
- Paris is currently 7 hours behind Tokyo. Tokyo does not observe daylight saving time, so this gap changes by 1 hour when Paris transitions to/from DST.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Paris?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Paris is
Europe/Paris. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Europe/Paris' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Europe/Paris')`), or any IANA-compatible library. - Is CET the same as CEST?
- No. CET (Central European Time, UTC+1) is the standard winter time used by Paris and most of Central Europe. CEST (Central European Summer Time, UTC+2) is the same zone during daylight saving time. The abbreviation changes, but it is the same IANA timezone — the offset shifts by one hour.