While browsing the site of an amazing colleague (Billie Farlow, I highly recommend her Twitter, she’s absolutely incredible), I saw that she had a page listing her restaurant, travel, and activity wishes. I really liked the idea, so following that inspiration, I’m sharing what I’d love to do this year and in the years to come (because clearly not everything will fit into my 2024–2025 schedule). You might even see some of your own wishes in my list, so why not do them together !?
In no particular order:
- Drink Bellinis and St-Germain Spritzes
- Get a massage
- Watch sunsets
- Taste wines and/or take a wine-tasting class
- Make pasta
- Do escape rooms
- Go to a stand-up comedy show
- Keep collecting stars
- Enjoy brunches and breakfasts in beautiful places
- Sleep in treehouses
- Go to a Cirque du Soleil show
- Learn to surf
- Eat spaghetti alle vongole
- Go horseback riding
- Try a flotation tank
Toulouse: I have a long list I can share if you’re short on ideas
Region:
- Hotel: Ma parenthèse flottante in the Lot
- Restaurant/Hotel: Villa Pinewood
France:
- Restaurant : 220 BPM (Lyon)
- Restaurants: Jean Sulpice and L’Abbaye (Talloires) (plus, you’ll get all the stories that go with my desire to return to these places)
- Restaurant: Guy Savoy (Paris)
- Restaurant: Anne-Sophie Pic (Valence)
- Restaurant: Maison Lameloise (Burgundy)
- Hotel: Les Prés d’Eugénie, Eugénie-les-Bains
- Hotel: another of the Airelles (Gordes or Château de la Messardière in St Tropez)
- Hotel: El Dorado (Paris) Wish fulfilled, thank you!
- Hotel: L’Abbaye de Bussière (Burgundy)
- Hotel: Château de Rochecotte (Loire Valley)
- Places to visit: Porquerolles, Loire Valley castles
- Experiences: Crazy Horse and Lido shows
Europe:
- Return to Lake Como (why not stay at the gorgeous Passalaqua)
- Visit Portugal (and the Azores)
- Do a countryside getaway in England, in autumn or spring
- Explore Scotland and its castles
- Step back on a sailboat to see if I am still sea-worthy
- Return to London
- Visit Iceland, its volcanoes, and waterfalls
- Try the Norient-Express in Norway once it launches
World:
- Do a road trip in Oregon
- Go on a “Beach and Hiking” trip to Seychelles, Costa Rica, French Polynesia, or Nauru
- Return to New York (like London, I’ve been itching to go back for a while)
- See the Northern Lights
- Watch whales in the St. Lawrence Gulf
“Extreme” wishlist:
- Go tornado-chasing in the USA
- See an active volcano
- Sleep in the jungle again, in a hut, hearing all the sounds that lulled me as a child (snakes and spiders are fine, but I’m counting on you to protect me from monkeys, you’ve been warned!)
While writing this last part, I realized it’s also about revisiting childhood/teenage career dreams: I wanted to be a volcanologist, an oceanographer (I almost pursued that instead of nursing after high school), and an entomologist (my ultimate dream was to go to the Radeau des Cimes).