Fighting Jet Lag

 Bag by Barbara Rhil

We all love going to Paris.

 It's the coming home and the attendant jet lag that sucks.

 Yesterday while tossing out papers I found an old NYTimes article on fighting jet lag saved from 1997.

 I'm still fighting Jet lag. I can depend on a solid two weeks of it when I return from a trip. The 'walking through water' sensation is a regular for the 1st few days.

 Waking up and wanting breakfast at 2:30 AM is another reliable symptom.

 Plus falling asleep comatose at 7:30 PM.

No matter how much I force myself to eat coffee ice cream + drink coke (for the caffein) nothing seems to work.

 I'm not keen on taking medication

 Though they say coming home (going west) is an easier adjustment for the body, it's the opposite for me. I have no Jet lag going to Paris. But then a week or so ahead my body automatically goes on Paris time waking up insanely early at 3 AM and ready to start the day bla bla bla. The return trip adjustment is always hellish.

 This trip back was different.

I had to leave my apartment by 10:30 AM and my flight was not till 7 PM. It's well known the last weeks of July there is a mad exodus out of Paris. Parisians are taking off for their summer vacance. The roads are jammed and so are the airports. Plus it was a Friday - the worst day to travel. I knew Charles de Gaulle airport would be crazy bad, so I decided to just spend the entire day there. Instead of my usual tearing around the last day like mad person buying last minute stuff and taking last minute pictures. Et voila.

 CDG was a madhouse of travelers when I arrived at noon. So much so AirFrance told me to wait 1 1/2 hours before going through customs. The lines were horrendous. When they did let me through, the line was short and managable. I went into every gift shop in CDG and looked at every single product for about 7 hours. The result was total mindlessness like at a yoga retreat.

 I even took this picture of a dog in the ladies loo!

  For some unknown reason it's near impossible to read a book or focus on a computer inside the airport or on the plane. No matter the best of intentions. After vegging out in the airport for 7 hours, you board the plane for another 7-8 hours of vegging out.

 The airport time + plane travel puts you into a kind of braindead trans-like state.

The end result of spending my last day in Paris basically doing zero is I have little or no Jet lag post trip! Go figure. I feel like I've licked the common cold. What do you do for Jet lag?