Best Meeting Time: London to Paris
🕐 Live Timezone Overlap: London & Paris
London and Paris sit just one hour apart, which makes cross-channel scheduling straightforward for most teams. Paris runs ahead of London throughout the year, so a 10am call in London is already 11am in Paris. The 8-hour working-day overlap is generous. The main scheduling consideration is lunch: Paris offices, particularly in traditional industries, commonly take two hours from 12:30pm, while London workers typically break for only an hour around the same time.
Time Difference: London and Paris
Paris is currently 1 hour ahead of London. The live offsets are London UTC+1 and Paris UTC+2. London observes daylight saving and Paris also observes daylight saving, so the offset shifts twice a year if both sides aren't already aligned.
London currently observes UTC+1 (British Summer Time) and Paris UTC+2 (Central European Summer Time). Both cities observe DST, and both follow the same European changeover schedule: clocks move on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October. Because they shift together, the gap between London and Paris stays at exactly one hour all year. No seasonal widening or narrowing applies to this pair.
Best Times to Meet
The working-day overlap is 8 hours: 9am to 5pm London time, which is 10am to 6pm in Paris. Inside that 8-hour window, the cleanest slot is typically 10am to 12pm London time (11am to 1pm Paris). This avoids the London lunch hour from 12:30pm and the longer Paris lunch break common in traditional sectors. Afternoons from 2pm to 4pm London time also work well, provided the Paris side is not in a traditional office where the lunch pause runs long.
Working Hours Overlap Explained
London operates on Europe/London (currently UTC+1). Paris operates on Europe/Paris (currently UTC+2). The table below maps a standard 9:00 AM–6:00 PM day in London to Paris's local time.
| London time | Paris time | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 10:00 AM | Paris in business hours |
| 10:00 AM | 11:00 AM | Paris in business hours |
| 11:00 AM | 12:00 PM | Paris in business hours |
| 12:00 PM | 1:00 PM | Paris in business hours |
| 1:00 PM | 2:00 PM | Paris in business hours |
| 2:00 PM | 3:00 PM | Paris in business hours |
| 3:00 PM | 4:00 PM | Paris in business hours |
| 4:00 PM | 5:00 PM | Paris in business hours |
| 5:00 PM | 6:00 PM | Paris wrapping up |
| 6:00 PM | 7:00 PM | Paris outside hours |
Tips for Scheduling Across London and Paris
- Avoid scheduling meetings for 14 July: Bastille Day is a French public holiday and Paris offices will be closed.
- London Fridays slow from 4pm; book any cross-channel Friday calls before 3pm London time to be safe.
- Paris traditional industries commonly take a two-hour lunch from 12:30pm; schedule calls before noon or after 2:30pm Paris time.
- Both cities shift clocks on the same last-Sunday-in-October and last-Sunday-in-March dates, so your one-hour gap never changes.
- Plan August meetings carefully: Paris offices largely close from the second week of July through late August.
Public Holidays and Working Weeks
Both cities run a standard 9am to 6pm working day, though most UK office workers wind down by 5:30pm and London Fridays often slow from 4pm onward. Paris offices tend to empty through July and August entirely. Upcoming public holidays to watch: Christmas Day falls on 25 December in both London and Paris. France also observes Bastille Day on 14 July, so any meetings scheduled around that date should be confirmed with the Paris team in advance.