The country with territory spanning the most time zones, counting its overseas regions, is France.
France spans 12 standard time zones because its territories extend across the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans. During part of the year, its total can be described as 13 local times when France’s Antarctic claim is included. Metropolitan France itself uses only one time zone, Central European Time, with summer daylight saving time.
This record surprises many people because Russia is the largest country by area and stretches across 11 time zones. The difference is that France’s overseas departments and collectivities are scattered around the globe. French Polynesia, Réunion, New Caledonia, Martinique, and French Guiana are examples of territories contributing to the total.
Time zones are political and practical conventions rather than perfectly even slices of longitude. Their boundaries can follow national borders, economic ties, or administrative decisions. France’s overseas geography therefore gives it a wider time-zone spread than its compact European mainland would suggest.