CONFIRMATION! The shift when moving towards the west and less annoying than in the other direction. It’s the same for the West Indies. When you leave from Metropolitan France to St Martin (Lesser Antilles) at the end of the morning, you arrive at the beginning or middle of the afternoon in St Martin and we do very well especially if we are the night owl type. On the other hand, when you return to Metropolitan France from St Martin, you will take off at the end of the afternoon or in the evening to arrive in Paris the next morning (more or less early depending on the companies). And there, you will still have a VERY long day ahead of you! I think that’s why it’s harder in that sense. The gap is huge.
1st Example: I am going to Paris from St Martin (I am a permanent resident there). I get up that day at 7 a.m. My plane takes off at 5 p.m. After 8 hours of flight, I arrive in Paris where it is around 7 am (1 am in St Martin). I’ve been up for 24 hours. During the day, I meet friends, family … I probably won’t go to bed before 10 p.m. (4 p.m. St Martin) or 3 p.m. later, which will give me a total of 39 hours of uninterrupted wakefulness (unless I slept a little on the plane). It is therefore not surprising that I am on my knees, especially if in addition I caught “the death” when arriving which is generally the case in this sense … 🙁
2nd Example Paris -> St Martin. I got up at 7 a.m. (1 a.m. in St Martin). My plane takes off at 11 a.m. from Paris (5 a.m. to St Martin). It arrives 8 hours later in St Marin, i.e. 7 p.m. Paris time and 1 p.m. in St Martin. There too, I go to bed at 10 p.m. (i.e. 4 hours from Paris). As a result, I was up only 9 p.m. It’s as if I had been partying until 4 am, nothing to do with the 39 hours to go…! Obviously, I will quickly find my marks, in less than 48 hours.
Notes:
. I relied on summer hours.
. In the direction Paris -> St Martin, we are less tempted to sleep because it is in broad daylight
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