My case is pretty basic but I'd like to know what you think about it.
I developed an application for french people and the application is hosted in Canada.
I'd like to be sure that dates are stored in the french timezone. At which level I should change the code ?

MyClass {
java.util.Date created;

public MyClass {
this.created = new Date(); // Something wrong here ?
}
}


should I do the conversion in the Hibernate Date type with a UserType
or when I create the Date ? maybe with something like :

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone(...FRANCE...))
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(Locale.fr_FR);
created = new java.sql.Date(calendar.getTime().getTime());

or

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone(...FRANCE...))
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(Locale.fr_FR);
created = calendar.getTime();

Thank you for your help.
R.

*Never* store dates with timezone information!

Always store them as UTC times, then you won't have any issues as it will then be up to the app to display it in the proper timezone!