New Years Resolutions

I’ve done away with the process of creating the “perfect” list of New Year’s resolutions—the ones I could never keep for more than a day or those so broad there was no way to define them. Some of the dead ones from years past include losing 20 pounds and getting more organized. Instead, I now have two categories: dreams (lofty goals and things to wish for) and more practical, doable, trackable resolutions. Naturally there is a travel-related theme here. These are my own New Year’s resolutions, but what are yours? Share them with us on our Facebook page.

Practical/Doable

ONE. Finally get to Strasbourg. This is the area that my husband’s family is from, and although that was many generations ago, I feel like I need to visit. It’s one of the few regions of France that I’ve never set foot in. Strasbourg and Colmar are meant to be absolutely adorable towns. Read our writer Kelly Page’s take on them at Christmastime if you need proof. And doing an Alsatian wine tasting would be divine. So what have I been waiting for?

TWO. Have more stellar GO-Card events like our Michael Kors (November 2013) and Hôtel de Vendôme (October 2013) outings in Paris and elsewhere. Getting out to meet and greet our readers and our GO-Card holders, both locals and visitors alike, makes me so very happy. The good news is that Kathryn, our business development gal in Paris, has a bunch of cool events up her sleeve. Stay tuned and get your own GO-Card so you are on the list for event number three.

Photo: chocablog.com. 

THREE. Eat more like a Parisian: high quality and low quantity. I will treat myself to chocolate after dinner, but just one little square of very fine dark chocolate, perhaps with a bit of sea salt. I adore those little painted bars at Aoki in Paris, and just one can satisfy me. This is the general approach I’d like to take more often with regard to other consumer items: less=more.

 Dreams 

Now that we have our magazine, gg2p ET PLUS, covering the rest of the world beyond Paris (yes, there actually is one), it has been my good fortune to have yet another excuse to travel (like I needed one). Luckily, we can always find great writers in fabulous locales to cover a location from an insider’s perspective. But personally, I’d like to make it to India and China this year, the two big holdouts that remain on my wish list of trips. It is a bit impractical to do two big trips. I have got such huge expectations for India that I am worried I’ll have to stay there for in order to do all I want to. But somehow I have to move forward and get to at least one of these incredible destinations in 2014.

Finally, I feel the need to walk part of the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of Saint James. I feel a little sheepish about this, as I had it on my list last year. I turned 50 in 2013, and it seemed like the perfect year to get in better shape and walk the walk—the one pilgrims have been doing for a thousand years. But I just didn’t get to it last year. So 2014 it must be. I’m going to round up a posse of gals and plan something for the fall.
Here’s wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy New Year, whether or not you accomplish any resolutions. 

PS: What do you have planned that you’d like to share? Inspire us on our Facebook page.