Hoddy Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 The is some discussion at the moment about whether we should revert to BST this weekend. Someone pointed out that people who found it inconvenient should just change the time at which they do things. A number of references have been made to how things are done in France.It's my impression that the French rise earlier in the mornings and go to bed earlier at night. Is that because I'm only there in the summer or is it always like that ? What are the usual going to bed and getting up times in your area ?HoddyHoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Yes, all the french I know do go to bed early and rise early. Which always amazed me that meetings, say parent / teacher meetings would finish at midnight. In fact every reunion I ever went to always started late and finished very late.I like my GMT. I think that we should work around the sun being at it's peak in mid summer at noon, but that is just me. I have had the misfortune to be up far too early for me recently and listened to Farming Today on Radio 4 where this was discussed. Apparently farmers are divided 50/50 about the change over to what would actually be 'french' time winter and summer.Naturally the Scots would be affected more, but they always are as being so far north, it is inevitable that they have 'more dark' in winter and I'm sure that no matter how they did it kids would still end up either going to school or coming home in the dark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 The French in our village would certainly rise early, if the number of cars on the road is anything to judge by, but I am less sure of the evening timing, once behind their closed shutters (as soon or before it gets dark) who knows what they get up to and what time they go to bed!!!?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Come 10pm most people in our apartment block will be turning in if they haven't already. I've noticed this also in villages nearby when driving home late; everything is in total darkness, which isn't accounted for by everyone having tightly-closing shutters. Businesses are open early in the morning, artisans are at work by 08.00, schools are open, so I suppose having an early night is needed. I'd be very happy to stick with BST all year round, or even have double summertime. I think the Scots would just have to work around it, and I'm of Scots descent. [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keni Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 All our working lives in the UK, and before, I was up around 7.ooam and himself any time (due to shifts). Over in France, we are awake at 7.00am - but it's 8.00am in France, our body clocks are tuned in to the Uk time it still appears! t will be interesting Sunday mornig to see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Can anyone explain to me why the change-dates are not symmetrically disposed around the solstices?By which I mean that if one puts the clocks forward the last weekend in March then logic dictates that they should go back the middle weekend of September.And yet we have to wait until the end of March for "summer time" all over Europe (those that change anyway) and yet "summer" is prolonged until the last weekend in October.Personally I'd stick with the last weekend in October and have the clocks go forward (logically therefore) in early/mid February.There must be a good reason why we have the current "decalage" - but I don't know why.(Incidentally, before there was Europe-wide agreement, Britain went forward in mid March and back end October. France stayed where it was all year (ie GMT + 1) until 1976 when the clocks were put forward for the summer. At that time there was agreement in the spring all over Europe as to the date of change but chaos in the autumn as most countries went back at the end of Sept but Britain held on until the end of Oct. This caused chaos for such organisations as BBC World Service (and no doubt the trains!) as one has to broadcast in the vernaculars at "local time" for the "natives", not British time. So October saw all the transmissions destined for Europe start an hour late when measured on BST. Not helped by the fact that Bush House stuck to GMT throughout the year so many of us studio managers tried to go on holiday in October as it was all so confusing!!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 [quote user="Chris"]All our working lives in the UK, and before, I was up around 7.ooam and himself any time (due to shifts). Over in France, we are awake at 7.00am - but it's 8.00am in France, our body clocks are tuned in to the Uk time it still appears! t will be interesting Sunday mornig to see what happens.[/quote]Hi Chris,Looks like you have fallen asleep already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 For most of our first 20 years in France we used to have about a month each year when we were on the same time as the UK as the clocks used to go back in September. Don't know why this was, but then they changed it so that we all changed on the same date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Awaiting my tea in bed this morning I turned my mind to this problem and concluded that this is yet another example of how the UK is out of step with modern civilisation. I just don't understand why they don't have the same time as France. [:@] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 France in fact should be on the same time zone as the UK, ergo if both countries have daylight saving hours then they also should be anchored to the same G.M.T. base.I note that someone in the French nanny state has finally wised up and the warnings on sun cream now say avoid the sun between 12.00 and 16.00, before it said mid-day, except the mid-day sun in France occurs at 14.00 in summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbles Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Glad someone else remembers that, Idun.I was beginning to think I imagined it.It did tend to be rather confusing if you happened to travel to France during that inbetween period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 With a family birthday around then, we were often travelling that weekend. There was often a bit of a scrum at breakfast at various hotels, as not everyone knew the time had changed. Hotel staff eventually started to put notices out if they were around the channel port area. [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 GG, I hope you got my PM? No reply required; just want to work through my list of folk to contact. Sorry, BST, yes, can't really make up my mind whether I like it or not.It always makes me think of newborn babies not realising about the clocks changing and screaming for their feed "before time"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 [quote user="bubbles"]Glad someone else remembers that, Idun.I was beginning to think I imagined it.It did tend to be rather confusing if you happened to travel to France during that inbetween period.[/quote]The change was around about 1996 or 1997. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Was it Benjamin? I thought it was a bit later than that, there again, my memory for these things is sort of vague, I know it was confusing and we lived through that for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 According to this, it was in 1996 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 [quote user="idun"]my memory for these things is sort of vague,[/quote]Your memory for what sort of things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 What things......... at the moment the old memory obivously playing tricks. I really didn't think that it was 14 years since they changed it, thought is was closer to 10 years ago. How time flies hein!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 [quote user="Martin963"]Can anyone explain to me why the change-dates are not symmetrically disposed around the solstices? By which I mean that if one puts the clocks forward the last weekend in March then logic dictates that they should go back the middle weekend of September. And yet we have to wait until the end of March for "summer time" all over Europe (those that change anyway) and yet "summer" is prolonged until the last weekend in October.Personally I'd stick with the last weekend in October and have the clocks go forward (logically therefore) in early/mid February. Me too.There must be a good reason why we have the current "decalage" - but I don't know why. [/quote]I would like to know why we have to wait until the end of March. Does anyone know why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 LOL you make it sound the the EJP electricity contract we used to have, beginning of Nov to end of March. And actually for me those are the cold months. So maybe that is the reason, ignore the 'seasons' in some way and just keep the time change for the cold months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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