The Greenwich Meridian's Forgotten Rival

If you've ever been to the Louvre, you may have stumbled across a small disc bearing the word "Arago" and the letters "N" and "S" - or in other words, the exact location of the old Paris Meridian. But what's the story there? How close did Paris ever get to becoming THE meridian? And why did we end up with Greenwich instead? I decided to investigate...
ALSO STARRING
Jay Foreman - / @jayforeman
Walking route here - maps.app.goo.gl/jyGGXXu1u2Nvd...
(Please note: the observatory is normally closed to the public, I was very lucky to be allowed inside)
INSTA - / the.tim.traveller
TWIT - / thetimtraveller
FACE - / thetimtraveller
IMAGE CREDITS
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
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[@domramsey]

As someone once said, "This should have been a Map Men episode" 😉

[@Becky_Cooling]

Map men, map men, map map map men!

[@kjh23gk]

Instead it turned out to be a Map Man episode.

[@Kachkeis97]

Listen to 8:48, there you can hear the Map Men Intro played on an Accordeon

[@patrickmartin3322]

@@Kachkeis97that is a great detail

[@Marmeladecheeseshoes]

Carte hommes

[@whelkschance]

Love the dog revealing the location name at 3:11

[@stephstribley5571]

Same. The way le chien trots past 😂

[@gideon3648]

I guess it's a longitudinal K9 Wipe.

[@creid7537]

Does the owner have to clean up after it? The Palais Du Luxembourg seemingly would require a rather large scoop or baggie.

[@gypsymuffinABZ]

So do I. Superb!

[@mumblbeebee6546]

“If I could turn back dog….” 😂

[@docterzero1503]

A surprise Jay Foreman appearance, did not expect that.

[@SeverityOne]

They all contribute to each other's videos. Jago Hazzard appeared as Harry Beck (the guy of the Tube Map) in a Map Men's episode.

[@docterzero1503]

@@SeverityOnePretty sure the tube map videos was unfinished London. But my point is that while Jay Foreman's videos does that a lot, it is a lot rarer to see it outside, and it is especially not typical in Tim's videos.

[@MggW]

He missed the opportunity to promote his grill, though.

[@jacksonmacmanus1001]

as did tim, though as a different character@tyOne

[@alloallie]

​@@SeverityOne And Geoff Marshall as Frank Pick

[@lakrids-pibe]

The Paris Meridian was an important plotpoint in Tintin and Red Rackham's Treasure

[@Enevan1968]

I was just about to write that. Glad someone else knows this 😊!

[@TheChloeRed]

@@Enevan1968 There's lots of us, lots!

[@simonthecuddlyteddy]

Yeah! I knew I has heard of it somewhere.

[@perekman3570]

Speaking of literary references; "The Island of the Day Before", by Umberto Eco also has meridians as part of the plot.

[@BarkingPenguin-jt3br]

I knew it. I bloody knew someone would say this.

[@angeleocorrodead]

Meridian is a straight line between poles? You know how bad it narrows it down in poland?! 🤣

[@RussellNelson]

Particularly when the Poles are drunk and staggering around.

[@angeleocorrodead]

@@RussellNelson and you think that narrows it down? Oh dude :D

[@ESiesta.]

It'll polish out, you won't notice it

[@angeleocorrodead]

@@ESiesta. xD hahhaa

[@beth12svist]

Pedantry: it actually doesn't in Poland because Polish people in Poland speak Polish.

[@PiousMoltar]

"This is the oldest observatory still in operation, but at the time" I was so thinking / hoping you were going to say "It was the newest."

[@cece624]

😮😊

[@aeolia80]

I was like "oldest! What about Cheomseongdae in Gyeongju, South Korea!!", then I heard " still in use" 😂😂😂

[@TheElvire96]

As a teenager I used to go to the Francois Arago high school in Perpignan (his home Town) and one year the whole class took a trip to Paris and to the Louvre so we noticed the medallion there and were intrigued as to why the name of our school was written on the ground in Paris. 10 years later and I now have the answer. As to the statue of François Arago, I can say that an other one stands proudly in the middle of Perpignan and everyone here knows his name !

[@kelvinc]

This is where Canadians flock to tell everyone that Sanford Fleming, the chief British advocate for time standardization, made his railroad engineering career and lived most of his life in Canada.

[@davidrenton]

yep but Canada in the 19th Century was basically Britain with Moose

[@whiskeytuesday]

Pedantry corner got there first at 8:03

[@giwiens]

We can still be annoyed that it wasn't mentioned in the narration@@whiskeytuesday

[@Desmaad]

And we do that because we're a pathetically needy bunch who crave endlessly for recognition.

[@KSPRAYDAD]

Correct...disappointingly treated as a footnote.

[@PianoKwanMan]

The New York-man sounds suspiciously like a bear with a pic-a-nic basket

[@melthrandir]

The music was on fire this episode.

[@mdhazeldine]

This is the perfect crossover Tim Traveller + Map Men episode. Brilliant! School teachers should use this.

[@FindecanorNotGmail]

2:46, 3:20 Go West (Village People, Pet Shop Boys) 6:50 If I could turn back time (Cher) 9:57 Clocks (Coldplay) 10:45 End of the Line (Traveling Wilburys)

[@stevieinselby]

THANK YOU! I'm terrible for not being able to recognise songs that I know and love when I hear a Tim instrumental version of them and I get really cross with myself!

[@m0llux]

Also, at 8:47, it's the intro music to "Map Men", a show about geographic curiosities busted by Jay Foreman (whi incidentally was in the cameo a few seconds later)

[@malthuswasright]

Wasn't the theme for pole to pole in there somewhere or was I imagining it?

[@mittfh]

Napoleon losing to Russia had an excerpt of the 1812 Overture, but a song that should have played shortly after (by a Swedish quartet) was conspicuously absent...

[@robbaskerville253]

Thank you. I was going crazy trying g to work out The Travelling Wibury one. I knew that I knew it really well, but it wouldn't come to me.

[@douglasboyle6544]

Your anecdote about the Nazis forcing Berlin time on the French reminded me of one of the greatest cockups I've ever experienced time wise. In 2003 the US (and others) invaded Iraq we had used "Zulu Time" (which is Greenwich mean time) to stay coordinated globally in the lead up to, during, and for a short period after the invasion. Well in the middle of the invasion on April 1st Iraq put their clocks forward for Daylight Savings as they'd been doing for a few years however after the invasion somewhere around the 15th of April we switched off Zulu Time and went to local (Iraq) time. This was done unaware by most on the ground that Iraq had changed time weeks earlier because since Kuwait didn't participate I think the assumption was that Iraq didn't either and had they had the same local time and we used that. This became exceptionally problematic when we were trying to arrange meetings with local leaders or contractors and we would just assume they didn't show or showed up really late. Eventually, once we got the locals on board with what time WE thought it was the US switched to Daylight Savings on the last weekend in April and decided to bring Iraq along because we thought it was a good idea (or someone realized what time it was actually supposed to be there). This then led to all sorts of issues because no one really told the average Iraqi I guess, I mean how could you, we destroyed their infrastructure. So we were running around trying to enforce curfews when no one knew WE had changed time but just weeks before told them they hadn't. That's the US military in a nutshell, really good at the fighting stuff but sometimes it's the little details they miss.

[@gregglind]

Thank you for sharing this amazing story, which should be its own episode!

[@brianbarker2551]

That and the Weapons of Mass Destruction that weren't there at all, but yeah, the time too.

[@GBOAC]

Zulu time is UTC, not GMT which has daylight savings as well.

[@Yngvarfo]

​@@GBOAC- I'd like your source for that, as I thought UTC was just the non-imperialistic new name for GMT, and it certainly *doesn't* have Daylight Savings Time.

[@douglasboyle6544]

@@Yngvarfo I think what he was saying is that GMT has daylight savings, not that UTC does. and @GBOAC I used GMT when I wrote that because I didn't want to have to explain further details of UTC was since people who have watched this video already knew what GMT was.

[@oatmonster]

8:47 Cheeky Map Men jingle

[@stephstribley5571]

Homme cartes homme cartes....

[@Vadorin]

@@stephstribley5571 Hommes, hommes, hommes, cartes, cartes

[@Peterwhy]

@@stephstribley5571 hommes hommes hommes cartes cartes.

[@bishwatntl]

@@stephstribley5571 ..and that's in the end credits (well, just once, to be suitably pedantic)

[@michaelkarnerfors9545]

At 02:23 as well.

[@Banz_FPSB]

Hello Tim, great video as usual! While talking about the Greenwich meridian and timezones, here is an additional fun trivia: the Greenwich time was called "Greenwich Mean Time", or GMT. But during the standardization process they wanted to use a more neutral term. The issue was they couldn't figure out which language to use: French was the lingua franca but English was growing in popularity. So they hesitated between "Coordinated Universal Time" (CUT) or "Temps Universel Coordonné" (TUC), and in the end they chose... "UTC", which means nothing in either language, so no winner :)

[@MrDgwphotos]

My dad was a ham radio operator, he used to tune into the NIST radio station (WWV) to set our clocks, and they use the phrase Coordinated Universal Time.

[@HansStrijker]

How about making it mean the "Universal Thingamabob ab't Clocks"?

[@wta1518]

I just read it as "Universal Time, Coordinated".

[@allangibson8494]

Universel Temps Coordonne…

[@MichaelSteeves]

Similar to ISO standards. ISO is based on the greek "to measure" put out by the International Organization of Standards.

[@HenFilmStudio]

I was shocked by the Jay Foreman Cameo! 9:10 Love it!

[@gauderiquebarriere5226]

Actually, the "Paris meridian" is not only celebrated in Paris but also troughout all France under the name "La méridienne verte". You can find these plates alongside many roads from North to South 😉

[@kevinfitzpatrick444]

Fascinating as ever, but honestly my mind is blown at the little factoid that France, Netherlands and Belgium used to be in the same timezone as us. Little nugget from the war that I never knew

[@PeterFabian]

It only makes sense.

[@Pouncer9000]

I was about to point out that factoid isn't actually fact as "a factoid is either an invented or assumed statement presented as a fact" and I rather like having a term for that. But then the definition goes on to state that it is" [ also] a true but brief or trivial item of news or information." So it means what it means and also its contrary,. Never change English language, never change..

[@Ankha38]

And Spain

[@jordidebont9547]

Nope, the Netherlands used to be on Amsterdam time, UTC +0:19½/20 until 1940

[@Quintinohthree]

The Netherlands has never been in the UK time zone.

[@mda2894]

I just want to point out the beautiful dog wipe transition at 3:09

[@juststeve5542]

9:45 - The French just ignored it and kept doing their own thing... This might just be the most commonly used phrase on the planet 🤣

[@moon993]

This applies to keyboards too since France (along with Belgium and former French colonies) uses Azerty while most other countries use Qwerty

[@SeverityOne]

@@moon993 Except ze Germans. And because ze Germans use ze 'z' a lot, it's in ze place of ze 'y', which has no place in proper German.

[@2712animefreak]

@@SeverityOne And most of the rest of Central Europe, since they use 'z' more than 'y', too.

[@AlexOnTheBus]

Plus ça change…

[@juststeve5542]

@@moon993 I don't think I can blame them for keyboards, those are a very regional thing, depending on the language and regional requirements. The US for example don't need a £ or € sign. Why they swap @ and " is beyond me though.

[@gwiazdapioun2127]

2:11 London Gateway services really that bad to deserve such punishment?

[@Citiesinmotionplayer]

It is the exact coordinate that the forward facing guns of the HMS Belfast are pointed at

[@MrBlueBurd0451]

@@Citiesinmotionplayer Odd, because the sat imagery disagrees.

[@Matt-kl1pg]

specifically the Starbucks at the entrance... so I guess Tim prefers Costa

[@MianCowell]

@@Matt-kl1pgThat'll be Geoff's influence

[@sydnorth5868]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who paused the video and checked where it was. Although I was expecting the pin to land on the Palace of Westminster!

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

I think I may actually learn more about Paris from these videos than from actually living here most my life lol fascinating as usual

[@RossParker1877]

Tim, hearing Pole to Pole plinking away in the background made my life

[@ChakatSandwalker]

I'm so glad you said this. I heard it, and immediately thought, 'Crud, I know this theme'. I haven't seen the show since it originally aired (early 1990s), so all I had to go on was what Tim was talking about at the time, so figured it was *probably* 'Pole to Pole'. Nice to have confirmation.

[@tmfo2024]

That and 80 Days have to be some of the greatest travel series of all time.

[@Lumi-OF-Model]

Of course, given the topic, the map men theme song.

[@m0llux]

Also, at 9:58, it's "Clocks" by Coldplay. So brilliant.

[@vincentpelletier57]

Actually it is the Hommes Cartes theme song ;-)

[@mittfh]

​@@m0lluxThe Roman Meridian was Go West, Napoleon losing to Russia was the 1812 Overture, but Tim evidently hasn't rehearsed a certain song by a Swedish quartet...

[@acmejia]

@@mittfh Awesome you pointed out the tunes :)

[@GiacomodellaSvezia]

No one checked the initial commenter. Not so brilliant.

[@grigorbrowning]

Fond childhood memories of being introduced to the offset between the Greenwich and Paris Meridians by Tintin (in Red Rackham's Treasure / Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge).

[@lakrids-pibe]

Yes! The one with the mini shark submarines

[@grigorbrowning]

@@lakrids-pibe exactly! I see we've had the same thought on seeing this video. I've been a huge Tintin fan since childhood and that pair of books were some of my favourites - in large part thanks to the shark submarine (the first appearance of Professor Calculus / Professeur Tournesol). The meridian shift is such a cool plotpoint as you highlight. Something that as a child I took as just being part of the story - without realising how obscure it actually is/was.

[@DavidXChen-po2hk]

8:54 Of course, given the topic, the map men theme song

[@whiskeytuesday]

Bien sûr

[@thebardwhowanders9106]

2:44 The Roman System actually makes more sense than you would think at first glance... Because in this system all longitude coordinates are always East of the prime Meridian, preventing errors between East and West. The Netherlands uses a similar method on it's local cartesian coordinate system (wherein coordinates are expressed in meters instead of degrees, corrected by a scale factor, because, shockingly, the earth isn't flat). The origin used to be more or less in the centre of the Netherlands, the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwetoren church tower in Amersfoort. But now the origin is in a random field somewhere between Paris and the town of Troyes in France. This has the effect that A) all coördinates are always positive and B) Y(north)-coördinates are always higher than X(East)-coördinaten. And actually this origin is not placed on the ground in France but is hovering several 100s meters above it due to the lack of flatness of the earth. @thetimtraveller. If you at any time want to search for this origin, let me know...

[@Allan_son]

Assuming the coordinate system is a plane that is tangent to the Earth's surface somewhere, where is that point? Is it still at the church?

[@2712animefreak]

> A) all coördinates are always positive and B) Y(north)-coördinates are always higher than X(East)-coördinaten. Unless you're in the Caribbean, that is.

[@eekee6034]

@@2712animefreak Does the Netherlands have territory in the Carribean? (I honestly can't remember.) If so, they have a bigger problem than negative numbers. If the origin point is several hundred metres off the ground in France, then when it's over the Carribean, the plane of this coordinate system must be well on its way to the Moon's orbit! :D

[@apveening]

@@eekee6034 The Netherlands still has some territory in the Caribbeans, the (nominally) independent countries of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten are officially constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands while the islands Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius are special municipalities of the Netherlands.

[@telhudson863]

The virtual origin of Ordnance Survey's National Grid is SW of the Scilly Isles. Consequently OS map coordinates are always positive.

[@fightthehounds]

Yay, Jay Foreman cameo

[@juststeve5542]

5:00 - Due South theme - Very good! 👏

[@TheChloeRed]

but for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture....

[@nicolas2419]

Several points : - Paris Meridien was really abandoned in 2000 when l'Institut Géographique National created new systems of coordinates which used the meridian 3°E from Greenwich as reference meridian instead of that of Paris. - Arago and other French nerds of this period lost the battle of the Prime Meridian, they finally won those of the system of units. The metric system globally won on the foot as measure of reference. - In 1911, France rallied the Greenwich Mean Time but the next year, the "Observatoire de Paris" was chosen as seat of the International Time Bureau which was responsable of the... Greenwich Mean Time and other universal time.

[@CountScarlioni]

The Royal Society in the UK decided that the metric system was much superior to imperial measurements and advised switching to it at the earliest convenient opportunity. And they said that in the 1790s! The political situation at that time ruled out the notion of any cooperation with France though. After Napoleon's downfall the idea of adopting a French system of anything remained nationally unpalatable and by then Britain's industrial and commercial sectors had kind of settled in with what they knew. Even now, despite supposedly transitioning to metric in the 1970s, we're still a strange hybrid. Its rare to encounter anyone under 40 years old who has any concept of feet, pints and pounds. Myself included. I understand a measurement in inches to a degree, but not as intuitively as I do one given in cm. It's mostly the elderly generation who cling to imperial measures now. The only unassailed imperial measurement in the UK that everyone uses is the mile, and it's actually Canada's fault we're still using it. When Canada switched from miles to km in the 70s, they had a nasty surge in traffic accidents. In light of that the UK government quietly shelved the plans for a road network switchover and so far have never returned to it.

[@atraindriver]

@@CountScarlioni I'm gobsmacked to think that you don't understand the concept of a pint of milk or having a pint down the pub. I think it's you who is utterly out of step with a country which is generally comfortable using both imperial and metric for most day to day measurements.

[@CountScarlioni]

@@atraindriver And may I ask your age?

[@happyslappy5203]

Thanks to Boris Johnson the UK will reuse the Imperial system. Way easier to use than the Metric (kilometre, metre, centimetre yuck) Look: 1 mile= 8 furlongs, 1 furlong= 10 chains, 1 chain= 22 yards, 1 yard= 3 feet, 1 foot= 12 inches, 1 inch equaling the length of 3 barleycorns. Multiply the value in barleycorns by the conversion factor '0.33464566929'. So, 3 barleycorns × 0.33464566929 = 1.00393700787 inches. So easy! British kids going to school will love to carry barleycorns in their pockets! As for volumes: compare 1 litre (1000 cm3 = 10cm x 10 cm x 10cm wtf?) and 1 imperial pint = 4 imperial gills = 20 imperial fluid ounces ≈ 34.677429099 cubic inches ≈ the volume of 20 oz of water at 62 °F = 0.56826125 litres. Great!😃

[@cykablyat6531]

@@happyslappy5203 😳😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Metric system:😊🥰 Imperial system:

[@trinne]

I love the fact that your first example of a meridian on the map was Helsinki meridian. Greetings from Helsinki.

[@jamescarroll3495]

A very Tim Traveller show. Nerdy, funny, but always enlightening.

[@jamescarroll3495]

good cameo too by Jay Forman

[@Peterwhy]

1:35 The map projection is clearly not normal cylindrical, and meridians are not all straight lines on this map.

[@Kneisterkasten]

Took me a while of scrolling down to find someone raising the issue, would have been very disappointed to have been that first pedant to point it out.

[@xpehkto]

Yeah, it's clearly visible how Alaska - Canada and Indonesia - Papua New Guinea borders are not vertical

[@0topon]

the one time the mercator projection would have been useful

[@TheTimTraveller]

@@0toponthe number of times I said that while scouring Google Images trying to find suitable maps for this video :D In the end I decided screw it, I'll just put vertical lines on them anyway, at least it will give my fellow pedants something to comment about

[@0topon]

@@TheTimTraveller Ah i see, more video interaction is always good for the algorithm.

[@Dr.K.Wette_BE]

The Paris Meridian has become a little bit more popular / known since the "Da Vinci Code". Very interesting Tim, thank you !

[@Diego_x_Ale]

As a Parisian, today I've learned how to pronounce Greenwich! :) For nerds only: you can keep walking down south from Tim's route to the Parc Montsouris and find there a monument located on the meridian and used back then by the Paris Observatory - with the name of Napoleon on it scrapped by the monarchists.

[@DigitalTransmission]

The showcasing of Palais Du Luxembourg's title card with the dog is A+ work. Top marks all around.

[@boldblazervids]

I love how you used "End of the Line" by the Traveling Wilburys at the end with Arago.

[@elliechampagne1551]

Great video! I would like to add that part of choosing Greenwich as the Prime Meridien was all the work Clockmaker John Harrison did to allow sailors to determine Longitude at Sea, which saved literally countless lives. Being British, his work assumed Greenwich as THE Meridien, and all his work built on that assumption. For many years Ship Captains had been using his method to determine their positions whenever they were out of sight of land.

[@Strudlfaust]

1:38 The only time ever that someone should have used the Mercator but then didn't?

[@FredBifolchetti]

Surprised the Da Vinci Code wasn't mentioned, that's basically where I learned about all this. I've actually also spotted an Arago medaillon placed inside the Louvre Museum.

[@pmichael73]

Yeah, and it's not even close to where Dan Brown put it! But, of course, neither is Versailles.

[@namenamename390]

8:07 love the notes of Big Ben playing here

[@AramcoPhil]

2:15 the given coordinates are pointing at the London Gateway service station at Scratchwood... aka the current target of the guns of the Museum Ship HMS Belfast :D Nice easteregg!

[@betterspud21]

Ah! Of course! Now that's a call-back.

[@CaptainCed]

Can't believe how far I had to scroll to find someone who checked it!

[@marcrindermann9482]

I was wondering why he chose that target. Had to look it up, of course.

[@alfabsc]

I remember seeing a documentary in the 1960s about time, earths rotation, stars, solar day, sidereal day etc. The final question was "What time is it now?", and the answer was "It doesn't matter as long as we agree!" Thanks for the video.

[@SemiLobster]

Tim continues his ruthless, never ending war against mentioning Canada

[@juliansmith4295]

Well-put.

[@user-fj7df3ng7z]

We should invite him to Canada to see the various notable places here.

[@jupe2001]

In ancient India, it was the Ujjayinī meridian after the city of Ujjain. Astronomical tables and charts all over India were based around this city. The presiding deity of the city is Mahakala ie Lord of Time. When many Sankrit texts were translated to Arabic during the Islamic golden age, Ujjayinī retaied its importance in those texts as well. In Europe the city was translated as Arym, such as in the maps of Petrus Alfonsi.

[@TheTimTraveller]

Yes! I nearly mentioned the Ujjayinī meridian in the video, because I think it pre-dates the Greeks and Romans, right? But like you say, it was used for astronomical charts rather than terrestrial maps...

[@jupe2001]

@@TheTimTraveller I just found a paper titled 'Early Alfonsine Astronomy in Paris: The Tables of John Vimond (1320)' which talks about Arin as 'The centre of the world' for 14th Century astronomers and calculation of Longitude Distance between Arin and various cities in Europe. But yeah there was nothing directly about maps and navigation. Thank you for the reply!

[@OutbackCatgirl]

love that lil snippet of the 1812 overture in the napoleon getting rekt section

[@paristoptips]

From a Parisian KZbinr, the best video I've ever seen about the Paris Meridian. Thanks, Tim!

[@py8554]

I learned about the Paris “Rose Line” when I read the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

[@Optidorf]

Wait, what? I never knew a meter was defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator. Mind = blown

[@Jehty21]

That was the first definition. After that it was "as long as this stick". And then "equal to 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red emission line in the electromagnetic spectrum of the krypton-86 atom in vacuum" And since 1983 it is "the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second."

[@johnculver2519]

unfortunately, it was decided by surveyors, so our primary length measurement was a long way from a sensible scale, what we call the centimeter would have been so much better. The good news is they didn't leave it to astronomers!

[@katrinabryce]

@@Jehty21 It was the second definition. The first was the length of a pendulum that swings once per second. That was actually a British invention. It was found not to be sufficiently accurate because a pendulum will swing at slightly different speeds in different places. Yes, the metre, and the metric system is a British invention. The imperial system is not; it is a Roman invention. The French do deserve credit for running with it and making it actually work.

[@Jehty21]

@@katrinabryce no. The pendulum was only a proposed definition. Never accepted. And I don't know why you would think that the meter - implemented by the French Academy of Sciences - was a British invention. Kinda strange.

[@sheevone4359]

That is why the meridional circumference is exactly 40’000 km long (except it isn't, because it's a bit more, because they made a slight calculation error back then. But it should've been)

[@davidbuick8401]

Central European Time is still referred to by some older French people as "l'heure des Allemands".

[@Giloup920]

"L’heure allemande" more precisely. There is a French novel called " Mon village à l’heure allemande ".

[@rogeriomonteiro760]

Yes, in fact Central European Time is the English Time +1. Unfortunately France, Spain and the Benelux keep using it knowing that is the wrong one. The only west european country that is using the correct one besides the UK and Ireland, is Portugal.

[@Mimi.1001]

I wonder why they never changed it back (same with Spain where Franco switched and the Low Lands). I guess nowadays most people are accustomed to it, and it might facilitate cross-border trade and tourism, but directly after the war for France/Benelux or after Franco for Spain would've been a sensible opportunity. France has only used the "new" time zone for a couple of years at that point after using the factually "correct" time for decades if not centuries beforehand. Europe was usually quick to remove any remnants of the Nazis after they were defeated.

[@augth]

@@Mimi.1001keeping Central European time allows us to have daylight later in the evening. A lot of people even prefer the summer time which is +2.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@augth semi-recently I had a discussion with someone who _hates_ summer-time because it means driving to work in the pitch black. When she was told about France getting moved an hour ahead in the war and keeping it (then doing it again in the summer), she said that'd be hell for her. I found it surprising because almost everyone else I know values the brighter night-life like you mentioned. But she always goes to bed quite early so she said being brighter later also annoys her 😆

[@jeremyolson6419]

The voice actors you paid to do the American accents were flawless, worth every penny.

[@jacksonmacmanus1001]

the cameo at 9:15 is brilliant

[@peppermann]

Tim is one of the most listenable narrators on YT. 👏

[@RoHo702]

Three thumbs up for the brilliant use of Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time."

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

2:44 Go West! young man.

[@riffzifnab9254]

3:10 that dog wipe is adorable :3

[@soldieroffortune308]

Is there anyone here that caught the music when he said "travel due south" or am I the only one? Tim, my man, way to go! That is one hell of a reference to casually hide in your video.

[@oscassey]

Missed that when I was in Paris (and the Louvres), but I did not miss the "Point zéro des routes de France" near Notre-Dame. I could not see it because it was 2022 and ... well there were restoration work there. It is a portal in Ingress and probably a pokéstop in Pokemon Go.

[@TheZapan99]

There is also an altitude zero, determined by a machine known as the Marégraphe. Created in 1883 and located in the port of Marseilles, it constitutes the baseline for every elevation map in France and in Switzerland (because they are landlocked and must use the nearest coastal point). The only other machine of this kind in Europe is found in the Netherlands.

[@AS-wg2tu]

Actually there are many maregraphes in France and elsewhere. It’s only that the Marseille one is the reference or « zero hydrographique ». Here’s a list : fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marégraphe (under « Marégraphes en France »)

[@TheZapan99]

Dan Brown used the Paris Meridian in his book The Da Vinci Code, conflating it with the gnomon obelisk of Saint Sulpice, as some kind of secret Egyptian pagan temple located on what he named the "Rose Line." Except later in the book, he made his line geographically impossible by saying it somehow links London, Paris (going through the observatory and the Louvre) and Nice on a North-South line!

[@caran26]

Also very well appearing in the Da Vinci Code movie!

[@Martin-on2pp]

Just smiling from start to finish. As allways👍👍👍👍👍

[@kidmohair8151]

personally, I think your re-enactments are spot-on. 05:31 what interesting names this german map has...

[@IIVQ]

At 10:05 you wisely omit the time zone for the Netherlands! The Netherlands didn't have a nationwide equal time until 1909, when they switched to "Amsterdam time", based ont he Aveerage solar noon at Amsterdam's Westertoren, which was GMT+19m32,13s. In 1937 we changed it to GMT+20 for easier conversion. Then in may 1940 our friendly neighbours invaded us and set the time to Berlin summer time, which meant we had to set our clocks 1h40mn ahead, to GMT+1+Summer time, where it stayed until 1942, after which we had 3 years of sort of normal summer/winter times (GMT+1/+2) and then no summer time (GMT+1) until 1977.

[@jamesboston]

Narrowly avoided a Canadian Heritage Minute.

[@alexcane6458]

Could have caused a right Royal Canadian Air Farce....

[@brianbarker2551]

Don't tell him about the house hippo.

[@allenellisdewitt]

8:52 OMG those LADS in the center!! that feels like a whole novel needs to be written about that energy

[@AlexM-WI]

6:15 I love it when you go all in for technical vocabulary … ^^

[@johnweiner]

Actually the little Arago plaques continue further south than the observatory. You can see them in the Parc Montsouris where, on a small hill on the souther periphery of the park, you will find the "ligne de mir" which sights directly to the observatory. The plaques continue even further south. The last one I found was on the campus of Cité Universitaire near the "Pavillon de Cambodge".

[@chantalvanderende515]

And much further north than the Louvre as well.

[@johnweiner]

@@chantalvanderende515 François ARAGO was actually an amazing guy...he discovered the celebrated "Arago spot" (sometimes called the Poisson spot) in optics which was the decisive nail in the coffin of the Newtonian corpuscular theory of light, he was on the faculty at l'École Polytechnique in its glory days, an astronomer and a statesman in politics. He understood the importance of the prime meridian to marine navigation which is why he militated for its adoption along the Arago meridian through the center of Paris.

[@chantalvanderende515]

@@johnweiner I commented on the location of the medallions. It's all great information, but I'm familiar with the subject.

[@happyslappy5203]

Fun fact: in the Northern Hemisphere, the remarkably unique latitude/longitude confluence point: 45°N 0°, where the Greenwich meridian and the 45th parallel north intersect. This point is situated in France, just 60 kilometres to the east of Bordeaux.

[@davidkimmins8781]

The French actually make quite a lot of the 45 degree parallel, with signs on motorways when you cross it. The Italians do the same. There also used to be a 'Meridien de Greenwich' sign on the A13 motorway between Rouen and Caen in Normandy.

[@rosiefay7283]

Why is that remarkably unique? Everywhere on Earth has a unique latitude and longitude.

[@Canleaf08]

8:22 welcome to Yuma AZ, where the state line and the time zone line goes through an highway interchange. You enter the intersection at Mountain time and exit that bridge one hour earlier if crossing into California. If you are coming from California, you exit that intersection one hour later. It makes your roadtrip … interesting when your hotel in Calexico (one hour away) won’t check you in before 3 PM , still travel one hour backwards, if you started at 1 PM, like arriving at 1 PM… The same happens on the border of Spain and Portugal, where they have built a zipline, where not only cross a river and a border, but your clock goes one hour behind…

[@flo_i]

This episode is even nerdier and more educational than usual. A bit less travel-ly and more science-y. But still the covert, subtle humor and great musical score. Loved it!

[@lcourni]

On ne prononce pas le W dans Greenwich ?! 🤯

[@Becky_Cooling]

Oui, l'anglais est fou! Et c'est ma première lange

[@TheZapan99]

Glouscester se prononce Glo-ster Leicester se prononce Lei-ster. Les noms en -mouth comme Plymouth se prononcent -muff Edinburgh se prononce Edinbrah Et tous les noms de villes en -ham comme Birmingham se prononcent -eum !

[@martenkats6915]

Les prononciations des noms de villes au Royaume-Uni sont souvent folles. Jay Foreman (l'Anglais dans cette vidéo qui a défendu Greenwich), a fait une video très intérresante lui-même sur le sujet. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4qxq6Sdipyhl5Y

[@Peterwhy]

@@TheZapan99 Could be interesting if your _Glo-ster_ , _Lei-ster_ , _-muff_ , _Edinbrah_ and _-eum_ are pronounced as in français.

[@GetSettled]

I think the one is Spain is a Madridian.

[@seidodge]

This is your best video yet Tim. Perfect mix of geography and nerdiness. Great stuff

[@user-xm1ty6ib2m]

I’m French and you had me howling. What a great video, definitely feels like a step up in production! Keep it up

[@neilmossey]

Haha brilliant thanks - and gotta love the "dog butt wipe" at 3:11 ! 🐕

[@R4rd]

I always love your background music choices, but 'The End of The Line' while talking about the silent death of the Arago Meridian is up there among your masterpieces.

[@brookswift]

i saw one of those little discs while walking around the louvre in a rainstorm the other day and i love that this video came out just after to give me the history

[@RobSchofield]

@ 2:57 - as ever, an exceptionally subtle and well-chosen piece of background music 😆

[@ocker2000]

My kids and I were at the Louvre past summer. Had I seen this video then I would have looked for the Arago plaque there. Great video. Thank you for sharing.

[@Erik_Emer]

I love the subtle usages of pop music like Clocks and If I Could Turn Back Time.

[@Becky_Cooling]

I was very surprised by a sudden appearing Jay Forman!

[@jerry2357]

10:57 You missed an opportunity to say "Arago was Aragone".

[@michaelsummerell8618]

You can still see a reminder of this time difference between cities in Bristol outside of the Old Corn Exchange (Now St Nicks Market) where the clock has two minute hands to account for the difference between London and Bristol. Excellent video Tim - very informative and entertaining as usual! Cheers!

[@raspucin70]

The pedantry itch has been thoroughly scratched. Thank you, Tim

[@JimNicholls]

Brilliant, Tim! There seems to be no end to your cleverness in finding and humorously depicting these quirky subjects. Thank you!

[@bepkoyt]

09:57 technical omission of the Netherlands, which was 19 minutes and 57 seconds ahead of Greenwich until 1937

[@UnitSe7en]

You're right, Tim. If I'm standing outside some louvers I'm probably not looking at the ground.

[@francistaylor5097]

Thanks, Tim. Your videos are always so fun and informative; just what I need after a busy day. Great Jay Foreman cameo too.

[@ShapeShifter499]

I like how you include information for people with mobility issues. It shows you care to note to viewers how hard it might be to visit the same place you do. Thank you.

[@SanchitPriyadarshi]

The way the French king has been dubbed with speaking English in a very fench accent... That was so awesome! You hit the nail!

[@nickbartlett5928]

As the retired Chief Clerk of the South West Trains Information Production Unit I find this fascinating. Thank you for posting this. You learn something new everyday!

[@PelucaHouse]

I have to say that your videos were always good, but in the last year the quality have improved a lot. Nice work!

[@JHaven-lg7lj]

Over 34,000 views in 6 hours, and that’s equivalent to about 10% of your subscribers - that’s amazing! I’m so glad that I and so many others have found your channel, thank you for the lovely work you do.

[@brookejohnson9914]

I am genuinely delighted to have stumbled across your channel

[@michaelmccutchan7229]

Ahhhh, the Tim Traveler of old is back!!!! Love the humorous asides and inserts.....like the days of yore!!! Thanks for the education and the quips! Most enjoyable!

[@user-pg4pc5gh8z]

I tuned in to enjoy the wonderful footage of Paris (qu’est-ce qu’elle est belle !). As the International Meridian Conference 1884 started, I remarked to my husband that the Map Men surely needed to be involved in this video. Imagine our surprise when Jay Foreman appeared 10 seconds later 😂 Une tres belle vidéo, merci beaucoup !

[@mwcloud]

The theme for Pole to Pole, nice subtle nod there

[@hazridge]

7:54 “I’ve got an ideer!”

[@WardyLion]

I should’ve seen the Jay Foreman cameo coming when I heard the Map Men theme. While I knew of the old Paris meridian (from a Tintin book) I didn’t know of the story about it and now I do. Merci!

[@squarewheelsorguk]

Bravo! Thank you for sharing this information with us, and for describing it all so beautifully and with humour.

[@pyrho1]

Love to see a longer video. Plus Jay Foreman!

[@McRocket]

Magnifique!!! This is your videos at their very best - entertaining AND informative. You could just show this to schoolchildren and they would have it down cold...and probably enjoy it. Thank you...I learned a lot in the last 12+ minutes. ☮