Compiled by Nicoline Greer
ARCHITECTURE DE TRIOMPHE Paris is a work of art in itself. Rachel Kaplan, author of Little Known Museums In and Around Paris is running tours exploring the glorious architecture of kings and presidents. Her company, French Link Tours, has week-long or daily tours of 2,000 years of Parisian architecture that spans the Gallo-Roman baths and gladiatorial arenas of the Left Bank to the 21st-century design of the Champs-Elysées and La Défence. The tour has been developed in collaboration with the Boston Society of Architects and a daily tour could specialise in, for example, Art Deco Paris, Art Nouveau Paris or contemporary architecture. Also showing you why Paris is one of the world's great showplaces of Medieval, Renaissance or Classical architecture is Arthur Gillette, expert architectural historian for Paris Historique. The week-long tour will be offered twice this year: September 10th-17th and October 23rd-30th, for €2,300 per person, including accommodation. A day-only tour is €600 for up to six people, and larger group tours can be arranged for private parties. kaplan@club-internet.fr, www.frenchlinks.com (00-33-1-45770163).
ONE BIG PUSH Don't be surprised if you happen upon two eight-foot yellow ducks on the highways in early June. For the past 11 years, these creatures have been pushed up and down the country by Transition Year students from Clongowes Wood College, who have raised more than €1 million for Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, helping to buy equipment such as kidney dialysis machines and incubators. The "Duck Push" - whose motto is "Kids helping Kids" - has been a big success every year. The 35 students and a handful of teachers will be making their way from Dublin to Limerick between Thursday June 3rd and Friday June 11th, passing through Naas, Newbridge, Tullamore, Edenderry, Portlaoise and Limerick city. So if you see them on the road, try to support them in any way you can. John O'Rourke
BRUSH UP Explore the right side of your brain at the Bunbury Garden Studio in Carlow. Resident tutor and course director Trudi Doyle is well-known for her glowing watercolours, and believes in plenty of individual attention and encouragement, whatever your level of ability or experience - one course is called "Painting for the petrified". Doyle teaches watercolours, oil painting and sculpting in stone. She also runs a course in home décor where you can learn about using colour, lighting effects and fabrics; an introduction to digital film making; and stained glass. Classes are held in a bright studio with gothic windows, which look out on lawns and cottage garden flowers. It's all set against the backdrop of the Wicklow mountains and distinctive quartz bubble, Eagle Hill, so you'll not want for inspiration. Bunbury Garden Studio, Crecrin, Ballyconnell, Tullow, Co Carlow, 059-9156299, 087-6658500, trudiart@eircom.net.
SCRATCH MY MIX UP One of Ireland's lesser-known world champions is DJ Flip, who is the International Turntablist Federation World Scratching Champion. If you'd like to follow in his footsteps, "scratching" is one of the skills taught by the Modern Green at its DJ and Digital Music Academy. It is a two-day intensive DJ training course for anyone with a burning desire to learn more about the DJ craft and business. It will cover vinyl and CD mixing, beat matching, scratching and turntable techniques, radio broadcasting, techie stuff like set-up and digital equipment, CD production, music and artist promotion and marketing, and an introduction to music software. Speakers and tutors include some of Ireland's finest DJs, Johnny Moy (right), Arveene, Al Gibbs, Tu-Ki and DJ Scopt. Two-day DJ training course June 5th-6th, €280. It is also taking bookings for the next course in August. Contact: Modern Green Digital Music Academy, 01-8363366/086-8266030, ddma@moderngreen.com, www.moderngreen.com/ddma.html or The Digital Hub, 10-13 Thomas Street, Dublin 8, 01-4806200.
WATER COLOURFUL GUY Percy French wasn't one to let the dust settle - as well as being a singer, composer, poet, engineer, humorist and editor, the Roscommon native also knew his way around a box of watercolours. This year marks his sesquicentenary - that's his 150th birthday to you and me - and to celebrate the occasion, Dublin's Oriel Gallery is running a special exhibition of his paintings until the end of June. The Oriel has also produced a commemorative edition of its Percy French biography, Lead Kindly Light (with 15 per cent of profits donated to Unicef), from which the painting above of Achill Sound is taken. Oriel Gallery, 17 Clare Street, Dublin 2 (01-6763410). - Belinda McKeon
BLOOMING KIDS "I declare to God, if I hear that name Joyce one more time I will surely froth at the gob," Flann O'Brien once said. Perhaps some people are feeling like that already, as the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday approaches. To celebrate Joyce's masterpiece, the Ark in Temple Bar, Dublin, is running a fast-paced theatrical adventure game for nine- to 12-year-olds, transforming the Ark into a series of magical worlds. The audience will see Dublin as it would have been on the original Bloomsday in 1904, as well as travelling back in time to ancient Greece and joining Odysseus on his voyage home from Troy. Teams will compete in a battle of wits and comic antics, in which they become pieces in a huge board game. Open to schools and members of the public starting this week and running throughout June (01-6707788). Tickets: €8.50 each (with discounts for schools).
HOUSE PROUD "My only rule of thumb is that I must love everything as if I were buying it for myself," says Orla Byrne, proprietor of new home and giftware boutique Serendipity & Co in Rathgar, Dublin. It specialises in French and Danish home accessories, including a line of classic Danish painted furniture. Byrne ditched a career as a television producer for the shop that she had "hankered after for years". "As a teenager, I spent my spare cash on wallpaper and my free time redecorating any thing or any space I could lay my hands on," she says. Accessories and gifts include lamps, china, tableware, quilts, toiletries and handcrafted handbags. Byrne also stocks reproductions of antique handcut glass jugs and decanters with silver trims. Prices range from € 7.25 for silver hens' feet eggcups, to €515 for a painted storage press. "It's not about minimalism!" she says. Serendipity & Co, 70 Rathgar Avenue, Dublin 6 (opposite Coman's car-park). (087-2034419) serendipityandco@eircom.net