France spans the most time zones of any country when its overseas territories are counted.
France covers 12 standard time zones because its territory stretches from Europe across the Caribbean, South America, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. During parts of the year, daylight-saving changes can make the total number of observed local times even more complicated.
The country’s overseas regions and territories include French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. They are geographically scattered across several oceans, which explains why a European country has such a wide time-zone reach.
Russia is often given as the answer because it has the most time zones within one continuous mainland territory: 11. The United States also spans many zones when Alaska, Hawaii and overseas territories are included. The distinction is whether the question counts a country’s detached territories, not just its contiguous landmass.