An example with Pytz :
from datetime import datetime
import pytz
import rethinkdb as r
# Init
r.connect('localhost', 28015).repl()
if 'test' in r.db_list().run():
r.db_drop('test').run()
r.db_create('test').run()
r.db('test').table_create('stories').run()
paris = pytz.timezone('Europe/Paris')
r.table('stories').insert({
'title': u'Foobar',
'published_at': paris.localize(datetime.strptime(
'2014-03-17 14:00', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'
), is_dst=False)
}).run()
for document in r.table("stories").run():
print(document['published_at'])
print(type(document['published_at']))