Falling Back in Time... Sweet... !

It's that time of year again when you set the clocks back and gained an extra hour of sleep. I love it. It's the end of what is called "Summer Time" in Europe and "D.S.T" (Daylight Saving Time) in the U.S. which is designed to give an extra hour of daylight in the summer for outdoor activities.

However controversial it may be, I like it as it gives a seasonal feeling to our activities (which is not much compared to the 1 extra hour of sleep). I also like mornings and so I enjoy getting more light earlier...

• Daylight Saving Time begins for most of the United States at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April. Time reverts to standard time at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time.

• In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October at 1 a.m. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.

So the end of DST or Summer Time coincided both in the U.S. and in Frnace. Today, approximately 70 countries utilize Daylight Saving Time in at least a portion of the country. The only major industrialized country not to have introduced daylight saving is Japan.

In some ways, the this Daylight Saving is a Franco-American idea - it was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin (portrait at right) during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project."

(back of the Orsay Museum Clock in Paris)

More information about Daylight Saving can be found here.