My 2022 Paris Wish List

I'm packing for Paris right now and working on my itinerary for my short-ish trip. We snatched up a great deal on a flight to Paris last year and decided to use it as an opportunity to hit up Disneyland Paris again. The last time we visited France was in 2013, and we shared that trip with DLP then, too. It was only two days, and we did a lot of regular touristy things in the city. This visit, we have 3 1/2 days in Paris proper to do things we've had on our list over the last decade.

Our wish list is probably longer than this, but I'm looking forward to getting back to a few places I want to explore again and checking out other neighborhoods that I missed before.

Photo by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash

Eiffel Tower

Yes, we've been here before, but it's always nice to commemorate your visit with a photo from atop a cool structure. I love everything about the Eiffel Tower, and while I haven't been able to book tickets in advance, I have hope that we can get there in the morning and take a trip up, grab brunch in the lounge, and then move on with our day of walking along the Seine and enjoying gardens and the Champs Elysees. 

Photo by Vince Duque on Unsplash

Canal Saint-Martin

We've traveled down the Seine, but we love a canal. Just walking around this historic area sounds awesome to me, but if I have a chance to take a little jaunt down the canal, we're definitely doing it.

Nicolas Flamel's House

He may not have actually made the elixir of life, but after his wife Pernelle died, he had this stone home built for both his alchemist experiments and as a home for those seeking shelter. It's now the oldest stone building in Paris and has been converted into a posh restaurant.

Photo by Fatemeh Alizadeh on Unsplash

Pantheon

I don't know why we've never visited this before, but we both decided it was something we definitely should check out. Cool architecture is always on our list and I don't entirely know what to expect from the Pantheon, but we will wear our hiking shoes and find out, since we have tickets to visit.

Photo by Divya M on Unsplash

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

On our first trip to Paris, in 2006, I learned about jet lag the hard way, but Eric also took it upon himself to plan a cool afternoon for us when I was sleeping for a thousand hours. He took me to Pere Lachaise and I fell in love with it. I know that sounds weird (he definitely knows me well), but it is such a love letter to departed relatives that it's hard to feel sad there. It's beautiful and we'll be staying about half a mile away from it, so we're going to spend a nice morning strolling the streets of the cemetery.

Photo by Anya Petrovic on Unsplash

Luxembourg Gardens

These gardens seem to be outside all the neighborhoods we visited both times and got missed out for things like Versailles. Now I'm looking for beautiful places that are also free and help us really discover the different sides of Paris. Their gardens have always been some of my favorite spaces.

Photo by Heriberto Murrieta on Unsplash

Sacre-Coeur

I know this is usually on everyone's list, and we probably would have skipped it this time, too, but we're taking the Montmartre tiny train around the neighborhood and then taking the funicular up to the top of some of their tallest steps, where the Sacre-Coeur waits. There will be 300 steps to the top of it to see the view, so I think I get a pass for not wanting to walk up another 222. I'll walk down though. Maybe. 

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Museum of Hunting and Nature

Ever since I read this article about Wes Anderson's Paris, I've been dying to visit this museum. I adore a colorful Wes Anderson vibe and unusual artwork. Some of the best museums we've ever visited have been off the beaten path, smaller museums that are niche. One of my favorites was the Wallace Collection in London, which also had an amazing and affordable afternoon tea.

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Carnavalet Museum

This is another museum I've never heard of, but it's free and close to where we're staying, so I'm down for learning more Parisian history, especially in a city that has very few free or budget-friendly museums. Even when they are, they are time-consuming, since you end up waiting for hours to get in. This is one of the reasons we've never visited the Louvre. 

A few other things I have on my list for if we have enough time:

• Museum of Magic
• Montparnasse Cemetery
• Le Centre Pompidou
• Champs de Mars

And, clearly, we have eating a lot of delicious food on our list. We appear to be staying in an area with some lovely brunch spots (the 11th arrondissemont) and what appear to be upscale vegan eateries. I'm very excited. If you're excited to see our travels, too, follow me on Instagram. Otherwise, I'll do as many posts as I can after the fact. 

Have you been to Paris? If so, what are some of your must-dos, including budget-friendly dining? Let me know in the comments.

Shereen Travels Cheap Turns 12!

You read that right. It's been 12 years today! The last couple years have been a bit rough to be a travel blogger, or even just a traveler, but we're getting back to normal(ish) and traveling like before, but with a few changes to be safer. Let's talk about what's to come:

Every trip treats us to new learning opportunities and allows us to travel better on all future trips. Even after so many trips, we find we can still learn things and travel more efficiently, even if it's just a new packing tip. Doing a few road trips was helpful in bringing us back to the roots of travel and giving us a bigger appreciation for the simple things, but also being able to travel far and wide.

This year will see our first international trip since 2019 and I'm so excited. We'll be going back to Paris on a brand new budget airline - Play! - that has cheap roundtrip flights to Europe, via Iceland. For the last few years we've been putting off a trip to Disney parks, but when I saw this new airline had budget flights to Paris, we decided we could do the city and also Disneyland Paris for about the same price as doing Disney here.

We are taking 10 days that will see us on a day-long layover in Baltimore, 3 1/2 days in Paris, and 3 days in Disneyland, which is the longest we've ever gone to the parks. We'll also be staying at a Disney hotel, another first, since it ended up costing less than if we paid for 3-day park-hopper tickets, a nearby Airbnb, and transportation to and from the park each day.  

Photo by Cesar Cid on Unsplash

We might be doing another trip before the end of the year, but that's not official yet, since we'll be doing our new annual winter getaway the first week of January. We'll be visiting Palm Springs for a week to soak up some sun and explore a new city to all of us. (My mom will be coming along on this trip.)

The Travel Goods Show will be back (we hope) in Las Vegas in early April, so I'll be there. And then we'll probably be back in Vegas in July.

Other destinations I have on my short list:

• Chicago
• Toronto
• Boston/Salem
• Austin
• Victoria, BC
• Reykjavik, Iceland

I also like to share with you what's been popular to other readers, in case you've missed any of these posts or need a refresh:

• How To Pack Your Road Trip Cooler
• Cheap Awesome Eats in Vegas
• How London Explorer Pass Can Save You Big
• Doing London On a Budget
• Travel to New England for a Spooktacular Halloween

Thanks for staying with me for however long you've been reading. I appreciate the support. Let me know in the comments where you're excited to go next or what you'd like me to write about soon.

Our 9th Annual Harry Potter Party

What started as my nerdy heart wanting to have a fun Harry Potter-themed party, has become an annual celebration with awesome, like-minded friends who clear their calendar for one day out of their summer and plan costumes months in advance and I feel like I've truly hit the jackpot with them. Our 9th Potter party is back in person and even though it was a bit smaller than usual, it was no less fun.

Our theme this year was Hogwarts Goes Hawaiian, which was inspired by the one line in The Goblet of Fire where Harry imagines Dumbledore on a beach in his long wizard robes putting sunscreen on his nose. I took that and ran with it, hoping someone would do a Hawaiian Snape. No one did, which was a bummer, but also gives me an excuse to do it another year for a different event.

This was supposed to be our theme in 2020, so we've had 2 years come up with ideas, as we did a virtual party in 2020 instead, which we themed Dragon Pox edition. We had a lot of stops and starts last year, and ultimately cancelled it altogether and blamed it on Dementors. I've been working on dying both my hat and shoes a glaring purple to match the rest of my Knight Bus conductor costume. This one will make another appearance in the future, too. 

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Stan Shunpike sorted everyone and gave them a lei in their new House colors - a departure from our usual House pins. I was able to do this by using our mini Sorting Hat that came from Build-A-Bear, who cycles through all 4 houses in different ways, so we were able to get equal team numbers, except for Hufflepuff, because we only had 11 people. 

I make food and drinks from the books for every party I throw, and this year was no different. I tropical-ized them where I could. Everyone always raves about the food, making me feel like all my effort is worth it. The food and drink goes into the food tent, which I decorated this year as the Great Hall with castle walls and portraits. This year's menu:

• Gillywater - ice water with cucumber and fresh mint
• Butterbeer - you can't have a HP party without it
• Cherry soda with ice
• Tropical color-changing tea - an ice tea that contains butterfly pea flower. It starts out blue and turns purple when citrus is added to it. I provided shot glasses and lemon juice
• Tropical baked chicken wings
• Butter and dill salmon
• Buttered peas
• Carrot souffle
• Mini jacket potatoes
• Fruits
• Cauldron cakes
• Chocolate frogs
• "Crystalized" pineapple upside-down cakes
• Jam tarts - pineapple and watermelon
• licorice wands - lemonade and watermelon

I asked guests to bring new socks for donation, because Harry was always someone who wanted to help others. Usually we sell tickets for raffle items, and I donate that money to PDXpelliarmus, but this year I wanted to do something different. We'll be donating socks to a local shelter, because they are always in need of them. 

I make people fill out their own cards, so they can't get mad about pre-filled cards. LOL!

Each year we do N.E.W.T.-level book trivia and two other games, but this year it has been extremely hot, so I chose Bingo (always a winner) and then two other games that wouldn't require too much moving around in case it was just as hot the day of the party. These two games, which I called Quaffle Toss and Wingardium Leviosa were riffs on kids' party games and were actually the hit of the party. Here's how they work:

Quaffle Toss: You have a Keeper with a shallow bowl - I bought mine at the dollar store - and the rest of their team has a total of 5 ping pong balls. Space the Keeper and their team a reasonable distance apart. We used the driveway as a good buffer. The first team to get all 5 "Quaffles" in their bowl together, wins. If they bounce out, they have to keep trying until all 5 are in the bowl at once.

You can dole out points as you wish, but since I thought this was going to be a bit hard, I decided the first team to finish got 50 points and all other teams got 25. I think next time I will do 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

Originally, I meant to make Quidditch hoop boards with nets behind the hoops and use more "Quaffles" and have different point totals for each hoop. Play would have continued until one team's Seeker found a Snitch in a kiddie pool full of ball pit balls. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and it would have been much more involved, so I will save that for a future party. 

Wingardium Leviosa: One team member has a wand - I used these - and another team member has glow bracelets. Play goes until one team gets all their bracelets on the wand by tossing them across the space. I did 5 bracelets per team, because I thought maybe it would take them longer to do with the small hoops. We went head-to-head with two Houses at a time. The losers of those rounds competed for 3rd and 4th place, and the winners competed for 1st and 2nd. 

Once all the games are done, I tally up points and announce the winners of the House Cup.

Everyone in that House gets a winner bag with their own little House Cup, which is different every year. They also get bonus Chocolate Frog cards to add to their collection (they get two in their regular frog box), and then some things I think go with the theme.

But even the people who don't win still win, because everyone goes home with a themed goodie bag as well. This year I found these dumb tropical fanny packs, instead of the usual gift bag, and filled them with Chocolate Frogs (a goodie bag staple), a packet of emergency Sun Potion, and a pre-pasted toothbrush from me, the Knight Bus conductor, because I thought that was hilarious and also we don't know if the toothbrushes Stan gave passengers required toothpaste or water or not.

This year is our first in-person year we've done a costume contest with a trophy. Overwhelmingly, our friend Jay, dressed as the Giant Squid on vacation in the bottom right, was voted as best costume, so she took home a themed trophy with a tropical bird on it. 

I love to end the party on a high note, so once we've announced winners and done all the other end-of-party things, I pass out paper slips and ask people to add a memory to the Pensieve. They can write their favorite part of this year's party or why they love Harry Potter. I keep them all to read later. They don't sign them, so they are fun anonymous memories. 

I hope you enjoyed a little peek into our party. I can't wait to start planning for next year and for my birthday ugly wizard sweater party. What is the food or drink from the magical world that you wish you could eat or drink in real life?