Central European (CET/CEST)
Paris operates on Central European (CET/CEST). Paris observes summer time (DST), shifting clocks forward one hour in March and back in October.
Time Zone: Central European Time / Central European Summer Time — Standard Offset: UTC+1 (CET) — DST Offset: UTC+2 (CEST)
Country: France
This city observes Daylight Saving Time, so the UTC offset changes twice per year. Always verify the current offset when scheduling across time zones.
Paris operates on CET (UTC+1), shared with Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, and most of the European Union. This common time zone across the EU's economic core simplifies intra-European business enormously — meetings between Paris, Frankfurt, and Milan require no time zone conversion. CET covers over 400 million people across dozens of countries, making it one of the world's most commercially significant time zones.
The standard French business day runs from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, though the famous French lunch break (typically 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM) means availability dips midday. The Euronext Paris exchange trades from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM CET. Paris is 6 hours ahead of New York and 1 hour ahead of London, making afternoon CET calls (2-5 PM) ideal for transatlantic coordination, catching New York at 8-11 AM ET.
France follows EU DST rules, shifting to CEST (UTC+2) on the last Sunday in March and back to CET on the last Sunday in October. The EU has debated abolishing DST for years, and a 2019 European Parliament vote supported ending the practice, but implementation has stalled due to disagreements among member states about whether to permanently adopt summer or winter time. For now, Paris continues to shift clocks twice annually.
Paris has moderate overlap with Asian business hours — 9 AM in Paris is 4 PM in Singapore and 5 PM in Tokyo, catching the tail end of their business days. Morning meetings in Paris work best for Asia-Pacific coordination. For the Americas, afternoon CET is optimal — 3 PM Paris is 9 AM New York and 6 AM Los Angeles. The Paris-Dubai overlap is comfortable: just 2-3 hours difference depending on DST.