The week the time difference is wrong
Paris is six hours ahead of Boston. Everybody in a transatlantic family knows this the way they know their own phone number. Except that from Sunday 25 October to Sunday 1 November 2026 it is five, because France has put its clocks back and America has not yet. Calls arrive early. A video call arranged for after the children’s bath lands in the middle of it. Nobody is told. You simply find out, usually from a grandmother.
Europe changes on the last Sunday of October
The whole European Union moves together, by directive: summer time ends at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday of October, which is three in the morning in Paris becoming two. France brought summer time back in 1976, in response to the oil crisis, having dropped it after the Second World War. The current rule comes from a directive adopted in 2000, which keeps every member state changing on the same weekend.
America changes on the first Sunday of November
The United States used to fall back on the last Sunday of October as well. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 moved it to the first Sunday of November from 2007, and moved the spring change earlier, to the second Sunday of March. So the two continents were in step, and then one of them moved.
Yes, Halloween has something to do with it
The extension into November was argued partly on energy grounds and partly, on the record, for trick-or-treating: lawmakers who pushed it said an extra week of evening daylight would let children collect their sweets before dark. He regards this as the most American sentence he has ever read. A country adjusted its clocks for a holiday France barely observes, and his mother’s dinner pays the price.
In spring it lasts three weeks
The autumn gap is one week. The spring one is longer, because America springs forward on the second Sunday of March and Europe waits until the last. In 2026 that was 8 to 29 March: three weeks of everyone being an hour out. If you work across the Atlantic you already know this, because every recurring meeting in your calendar quietly moves and half the attendees arrive at the old time.
Both sides keep saying they will stop
In 2018 the European Commission ran a public consultation on ending the clock change and 4.6 million people answered, with strong support for stopping. In March 2019 the European Parliament voted to end seasonal changes from 2021. The member states never agreed among themselves and the proposal stalled. In the United States the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act in 2022 and the House did not take it up; a reintroduced version has since passed the House and is waiting on the Senate. For now everybody still changes, on different days.
What to actually do about it
Put both dates in your calendar: 25 October and 1 November in 2026, then 14 and 28 March in 2027. For that stretch, treat every transatlantic time as an hour off and say the time in both cities when you arrange anything. And call his mother an hour later. She has noticed, and she has told him.
The 2026 autumn change, side by side
| France and the EU | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Clocks go back | Sunday 25 October 2026 | Sunday 1 November 2026 |
| The rule | Last Sunday of October | First Sunday of November |
| Set by | EU Directive 2000/84/EC | Energy Policy Act of 2005 |
| At what time | 01:00 UTC, so 3 a.m. in Paris | 2:00 a.m. local time |
| Paris ahead of Boston, 25 October to 1 November | Five hours | Five hours |
| Paris ahead of Boston, the rest of the year | Six hours | Six hours |
| Spring change in 2027 | Sunday 28 March | Sunday 14 March |
Questions, answered
When do the clocks change in France in 2026?
France and the rest of the European Union put their clocks back one hour on Sunday 25 October 2026, the last Sunday of October.
When do the clocks change in the US in 2026?
The United States ends daylight saving time on Sunday 1 November 2026, the first Sunday of November, at 2:00 a.m. local time.
What is the time difference between Paris and New York during the gap?
Five hours instead of the usual six. From 25 October to 1 November 2026, France has moved to winter time and the US East Coast has not.
Why does the US change its clocks later than Europe?
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 moved the end of US daylight saving time from the last Sunday of October to the first Sunday of November, starting in 2007. Supporters argued in part that it would give children more daylight for trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Summer time in Europe — Directive 2000/84/EC, France’s 1976 return to summer time, the 2018 consultation and the 2019 European Parliament vote. En
- Wikipedia, Daylight saving time in the United States — the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the trick-or-treating argument and the Sunshine Protection Act. En
Verified October 2026.
He judges America weekly on Instagram, and Le Bulletin collects the best of it once a month.