France spans 12 standard time zones when its overseas territories are included.
This unusual total comes from France’s territories scattered across the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern oceans. Metropolitan France uses Central European Time, while territories such as French Polynesia, Réunion and New Caledonia use different offsets.
Russia is often associated with the most time zones because of its enormous continuous landmass, and it has 11. France’s total is higher only because its overseas lands are distributed around the globe. The count can appear as 13 during part of the year when Saint Pierre and Miquelon observes daylight saving time.
The time-zone figure concerns legal standard offsets, not the number of geographic regions that might be drawn on a map. France’s global territorial reach is therefore the key to this frequently surprising record.