France is a country that uses 12 different time zones, the most of any country in the world. In practice, France uses UTC 1 and switches to UTC 2 in the summer.

However, at any given time, the whole of France and its overseas departments and territories are in 12 different time zones.

The French overseas departments and territories are all regions administered by the French Republic but located outside the geographical boundaries of Europe.

These territories have different legal statuses and different levels of autonomy. But they all have representatives in the French parliament.

What is special is that these territories are located in many places around the world, from some islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, French Guiana in mainland South America to some locations in Africa and territories claiming sovereignty over the Arctic.

Because these territories are spread out in many places, each place has its own time zone (which can be the same or different), France can own up to 12 time zones in the world.