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A re-examination of French spatial and regional planning at the crossroads of the concepts of geohistory and the cognitive approach to public policies (public action standards) opens up new perspectives for a new understanding of the temporalities specific to this mode of action (emergences, rhythms, shifts, transitions, direction…). Thanks to the concept of regime of reflexivity proposed by the political scientists who theorized this current of political science, it is possible to define closely the complex connections of spatial planning thought and action and then to reveal three of the constants of regional planning in France that are, according to methods renewed during changes of action standards, the relationship of society to spatial inequalities, the demand for balance and scalability.