Chasing The Sun

L’Heure D’Hiver - Standard time

Last week was l’équinoxe d’automne (the autumnal equinox) marking shorter days and colder weather. It also marks la saison des moissons (the harvest season) and many holidays across the world. However, there’s one tradition d’automne (autumn tradition) that is annoying for everyone involved.

Photo by icolo J on Flickr

Now... for us in the UK it is very easy to manage the time changes and easy to remember by the phrase 'Spring forward / Fall back' [Fall being the Americanism for autumn] PLUS the time changes are on the same day in France and the UK, easy!

But if you live in other parts of the world it is not as easy as that, take America for example...

En automne on gagne une heure (you gain an hour in autumn). The shifting clocks sont un casse-tête pour tout le monde (give everyone a headache) while people spend a week trying to wake up at a new time. Malheureusement, c’est encore plus compliqué (unfortunately it’s even more complicated) between France and the US.

I live in France, but mes parents habitent en Floride (my parents live in Florida). Normally, le décalage horaire est de six heures (there’s a six hour time difference) between France and the US East Coast, and heureusement (thankfully) that’s easy to figure out on a 24 hour clock.

There’s a period in autumn when the US falls back, but France still uses l’heure d’été (daylight-saving time) creating a 7 hour time difference between the two countries. Le décalage horaire (the time difference) lasts long enough to get used to before France falls back as well.

Le passage à l’heure d’hiver (the transition to standard time) happens on le dernier dimanche d’octobre (the last Sunday of October) in France and on le premier dimanche de novembre (the first Sunday of November) in (most) of the US. Having to figure out all these time changes is un casse-tête, and only gets worse when travel is involved.

Savings in France