France: The Irish Ambassador to France, Anne Anderson, held a glittering St Patrick's Day reception at the embassy on Thursday evening.
Flautists Fintan Vallely and Desi Wilkinson played traditional Irish ballads in a concert at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, near the Pantheon in the Latin Quarter, last night. Vallely is the author of The Companion to Irish Traditional Music and Wilkinson is a member of the Cran group.
At the Irish College, story-teller Niall de Búrca will tonight regale children and adults with tales from Connacht of giants, magical boulders and fairies.
De Búrca's performance will be followed by a reading of Frank McGuinness's new play, The Gospel according to Judas, directed by Selina Cartmell and performed by Olwen Fouéré, both artists in residence at the Irish College. Visitors to the Irish College can also take in Irish-American artist Daniel Clarke's exhibition "Going Home". A second-generation emigrant, Clarke uses paintings, drawings and sculpture to explore what Ireland means to him.
The single biggest St Patrick's event in France is La Nuit de la Saint Patrick, organised by the Lorient InterCeltique Festival for the past 13 years. Some 25,000 people attended last year and a similar number are expected at the Paris-Bercy stadium tonight.
True to the Interceltique's tradition, performers at Bercy include the Galician Carlos Nunez, Dominique Dupuis from Acadie (Canada) and Téada from Ireland. Bretons, including the Bagad de Lann Bihoué, the leading Breton pipe band, will provide most of the music at the concert and "Fest Noz" party which follows until 2am.
In less than a decade, St Patrick's Day has become a widely-celebrated holiday in France. Several small towns in the Essonne department south of Paris joined together to hold a week-long "Irlandays" festival. The Sylvan Kelly School of Irish Dancing and the writers Michael Collins and Jennifer Johnston were among honoured guests.
Libraries in Athis-Mons and Juvisy-sur-Orge are showing the AIB Press Photographers Association of Ireland Exhibition until next Saturday. The town hall at Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice, was holding its fourth St Patrick's Day party last night - repeated tonight - under the patronage of Pierre Joannon, Ireland's consul-general in southern France.
