The iconic talking clock “3699” in France ceased operations on July 1, 2022. Now, the Paris Observatory’s website, “Heure Légale Française,” provides the exact legal time for mainland France. Accessible via computers and mobile devices, it accounts for summer and winter time differences. This site employs a simplified version of the Network Time Protocol to ensure accurate synchronization. Users can verify time discrepancies easily, making it a reliable alternative to the now-defunct talking clock.
The era of the talking clock has officially passed. As of July 1, 2022, the well-known phone number “3699,” which provided the legal time in France, is no longer in service. If you need to know the current time, an Internet connection is now required as a dedicated website serves this purpose.
Where to Find Accurate Time for Paris and Mainland France?
Heure Légale Française: Your Source for Live Time
With the discontinuation of the talking clock, there’s a modern alternative for checking the current time in mainland France.
The platform “Heure Légale Française,” managed by the Paris Observatory, enables users to easily access the exact legal time. Just visit the site using your computer, smartphone, or tablet to obtain the precise legal time in mainland France. It also signifies if the country is observing daylight saving time, which adjusts the clock by adding or subtracting an hour from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Launched in spring 2022, this website provides a reliable reference for time in France. While it typically delivers accurate timing down to the second, users should note that it accounts for potential “desynchronization” between their devices and the Observatory’s clock.
In essence, the site captures the time from the user’s device and sends it to the Paris Observatory. The server compares the received time to its own and calculates any discrepancies, factoring in the time taken for data transmission to and from the user’s request.
This process results in the display of both the time on your screen and the local time on your device, including the transmission delay in milliseconds. To minimize effects of desynchronization, periodic exchanges occur between the user’s device and the observatory’s server.
In practice, any difference is subtle and shouldn’t impact the correctness of your watch, alarm clock, or pendulum. The transmission delay recorded between your device and the Paris Observatory is 3.5 milliseconds, alongside an estimated desynchronization of 1.043 seconds, which is reflected in the final result.
The Observatory Utilizes a Simplified Network Time Protocol
The Paris Observatory has adopted a simplified version of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) for its operations. NTP is widely used for synchronizing clocks across various computer systems and incorporates adjustments for transmission delays. The Observatory manages four NTP servers, two of which are available for public use.
Microsoft also relies on the NTP specification for managing time displays in Windows, especially for the clock located in the bottom right corner of the operating system. Regular synchronization helps maintain alignment with legal time, although users can manually trigger synchronization as needed.
To synchronize your Windows 10 clock, simply right-click on the time display to access a menu and select “Adjust date/time.” A new window will appear where you can initiate synchronization with the Windows time server. Once done, you can close the window and continue with your tasks.
The Heure Légale Française website is likely sufficient for typical time-checking needs, serving as a replacement for the talking clock.
For more specialized requirements, the Paris Observatory offers several options: synchronization with its NTP servers, event log verification, engaging an accredited time-frequency laboratory, capturing time signals over long waves, or utilizing the SCPTime service for broadcasting time over the Internet, among others.