It's always the same story.
The time as suspended, flashing red on the small electronic clock in the kitchen.
Our hand hesitating in front of the + and - buttons, and this ritual question that we throw over the shoulder: "Are we moving?"
Or do we go back?
"
We go back.
This weekend, precisely in the night from Saturday to Sunday, France switches to winter time.
At 3 o'clock it will be 2 o'clock.
This means an hour more under the covers Sunday morning, an hour of additional curfew also, in the 54 departments concerned.
And the prospect of 5 months of short days and long nights, before the return to daylight saving time on the last weekend of March.
Will he be the last?
"No, it will happen a few years before we stop with the change of time," replies Olivier Fabre, mayor of Mazamet and president of an association for the defense of summer time.
In September 2018, the European Commission had indeed proposed not to touch the hands of our watches, from 2019. But the subject, more thorny than it seems, did not win the support of the people, asked to '' harmonize their choice of legal time, in order to avoid ending up with a patchwork of time zones between neighbors.
Since then, the subject has not stopped floating, suspended like the soft watches of the painter Dali.
The European Parliament voted last year to postpone the abolition of the time change to 2021, then the Covid pandemic put the issue in the background.
Even in another dimension, that of the Greek calends or their surroundings.
Beware of road accidents
This alternation is therefore likely to punctuate the daily life a little.
It has lasted since the oil shocks of the 1970s. The objective of the measure at the time was to take advantage of natural light for longer at the end of the day, during the summer months, and thus to save electricity.
But it is also highly contested for its effect on biological rhythms, especially in children.
"The problem is not so much the time change as such, as the bad habits it induces: when we switch to summer time, we tend to go to bed for a lot more than an hour. later, this is what is disturbing ”, specifies chronobiologist Claire Leconte, specialist in rhythms.
As for winter time, it means that many children and adults will come out of school or the office in the glow of headlights.
Beware of accidents!
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little history of official time in France
Each year, the period "is marked by a peak in accidents", recalls road safety.
For the 5 pm - 7 pm time slot alone, "the number of accidents involving a pedestrian increases recurrently, by + 42% in November, compared to October".
In the morning, between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., they jump 13.6%.
“We are surprised that night is falling quickly, and motorists, cyclists and pedestrians lack vigilance,” explains Claire Leconte.
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The phenomenon is also one of the shocking arguments of defenders of summer time, like Olivier Fabre.
The health crisis, and the distress into which it plunges the tourism and catering sectors have given it a new one: "maintaining summer time will allow terraces to function better, and longer in the evening. , he explains.
Giving them the guarantee of its maintenance would be a strong gesture of solidarity and hope.
"
