France has the world’s greatest number of time zones when its overseas territories are counted.
France spans 12 standard time zones because its territories are scattered across the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans. During part of the year, daylight-saving arrangements can give France 13 different local times, depending on how the count is made. Metropolitan France itself uses Central European Time and Central European Summer Time.
French territories responsible for the broad spread include French Guiana in South America, Réunion in the Indian Ocean, and French Polynesia in the Pacific. Russia has 11 time zones across its continuous mainland, while the United States reaches 11 when its territories are included. The result depends on whether overseas possessions are counted, so answers that name Russia usually refer only to its contiguous national territory.