Here we are, at the beginning of the 2011 Spring travel season and two weeks ago I found myself on a business trip to South East Asia.  First leg, 29 hours with two stops.  Trip home….. about the same.  

I am so used to our routine flight from San Francisco to Paris, then TGV to Avignon or connection to Marseille that I don’t even think about taking action to minimize jetlag or what clothes to wear on the plane for maximum comfort.  Everything just happens.

Then just in time, I found  two great articles on that very subject ……  as I started to ponder a blog on “Ten Tips To Avoid Jetlag” - somewhat a departure from the usual “Sablet Blogs” –  my mind went back to a particular attack of jetlag ……….. and the downside of avoiding  jetlag  as your body makes a quicker adjustment to the new time zone ……..

……….The down side of course, is that you’ll miss waking  up at 3am starving for breakfast,  as I experienced on a trip to Paris many years ago.  My husband who had been in Europe (on business) for two weeks before I arrived was not amused when I woke him up saying, “I’m dying for a cup of coffee.” Being  an absolute Saint  he got up,  and off we went for a walk in Paris at 3am looking for somewhere to have coffee.  Our Hotel was a small one in the Opera district and Madame at the front desk said  “definitely no coffee until breakfast”. She said it was perfectly safe to walk in Paris in the middle of the night,  “…. It’s not Chicago – we don’t have gangsters!” (This was also the days before we found our now favorite Hotel Relais Bosquet, that has coffee making facilities right in the rooms). 

We walked and walked, Paris was wonderfully quiet other than the occasional group of people leaving a night club in high spirits. But all the cafes closed.  We walked from the Opera to Madelaine, down the Rue Royal across the Place de la Concorde which was completely deserted –  far from its usual daytime look!  Left at  the Rue Rivoli  skirting the Jardin des Tuilleries ….. on and on for about two hours by which time we had decided to head back to the hotel, sans café!  Around  5am when  we were almost there,   we decided to turn right and walk down the Boulevard des Capucines instead of going left to the hotel.

 About five minutes walk from our hotel ….. what did we see?   ……The Grand Café des Capucines ….. it was open!   Le Grand Café des Capucines,  has been operating in Paris for about 130 years,  and is known  for its sumptuous  Art Deco style .  This opulent (open!)  restaurant   is one of the Grande Brasseries of Paris. …..  But were they serving coffee?  Yes!

 Le Grand Cafe des Capucines -  one of their beautifully presented business cards.

 As we settled into a comfortable red velvet armchair at a table by the large ornate windows, it dawned on us (no pun intended),  that we had stumbled into a  time when the day and night crossed over in this restaurant.  While we were enjoying our cappuccino  and croissants, two late night club goers in evening dress, arrived and sat down to a bottle of red wine accompanied by  very good looking steaks!  No problem for the staff though – they were perfectly friendly and happy serving both dinner and a very early breakfast t the same time.  As we later learned, this restaurant prides itself on being a open 24/7 or as they say, “ouvert 7J/7, le jour comme le nuit”.   What a great find and what a beautiful setting.  After an hour or so of drinking cappuccino and eating croissants, we walked  back into the hotel 

….. ready to go back to sleep, albeit for just a little while.

. 

Even though jetlag can be annoying ……. It’s hard for me to get too annoyed when I remember our very, very early morning walk through Paris on a warm summer night.

Ten Tips to Avoid Jetlag is coming soon!