Ah, now this is one of those flowering perennials that is always fun to discuss. As with all international "agreements" a compromise lies at the heart of it and, yes, the French were involved. With the advent of high-precision time pieces and the need for absolute global synchronisation, a meeting was held in 1970 to find a world standard, as the Earth's rotation is a bit variable.
GMT, smacking as it did of past British naval dominance, had to have a more politically correct name in the new order of things.
Coordinated Universal Time (CUT) was the solution. Unfortunately, this was far too
Anglo-Saxon for the French who preferred
Temps Universel Coordonné (TUC). Unfortunately, this acronym was already too familiar to British households of the period, who had to stock-up on candles to supplement their electricity supplies, etc. So everyone agreed on
UTC, rearranged the words according to ethnic taste, and the world lived happily coordinated ever after.
For those interested in the technical aspects of UTC,
this link is worth a browse. Those who remain affectionately attached to GMT or
Zulu, can find a splendid account of its origins
here.
Hope this is instructive
