What To Do This Week

Before Christmas carols and bedecked greenery become unavoidable, seek sanity in our events and festival round up.

Parlez-vous fran?ais?

Even if the answer to that is a firm Irish-accented ?non?, fear not because of subtitles! The Carte Noire IFI French Film Festival is returning this year to one of our favourite cinemas, the Irish Film Institute on Dublin’s cobbled Eustace Street in Temple Bar. Make sure to grab a black coffee and have a gander through the programme before all the billets (that’s tickets in French) are gone. Our top picks? The classic Truffaut movie Mississippi Mermaid with the glorious Catherine Deneuve. The iconic black and white Hiroshima Mon Amour. The interesting sounding Elle L?Adore (a beautician meets her pop singer idol and finds herself embroiled in his tricky private life). Three Hearts with the impeccable Charlotte Gainsbourg is also on the to-catch list. And of course 2006’s Lady Chatterley, an adaptation of the controversial D.H. Lawrence novel wherein a lonely rich wife discovers her sexuality awakening during an affair with her estate gamekeeper.

The festival starts tomorrow. See ifi.ie for more details.

A yoga retreat under the stars

And in Ireland too. For most winter means hot water bottles and duvets in front of the Saorview in the evenings. What do you mean humans don’t hibernate? For others it means keeping your body and mind in tip-top alignment. The Yoga Salon, run by Kathy Scott and Mari Kennedy, will be hosting a full moon Yoga, meditation and ?hibernation? sleepover in a beautiful converted 18^th century stone barn just one hour from Dublin from Friday 5^th to Sunday 7th December. They promise a ‘magical sleepover experience? in the midst of an oak forest and we can feel our muscles relaxing just typing those words. And it’s not just stretching and reconnecting with yourself, Fiona ?Fink? Hallinan is on chef duties. Fink has provided meals for the famous Fraoch Retreats for the past few years and was one of the foodie brains behind The Hare, a project she ran with Katie Sanderson that focused on seasonal, mostly raw dishes and found itself reprised in artistic institutes around the country, as well as the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

Prices range from €380 to €250 Euros for the weekend package. To book visit www.theyogasalon.net

If you find yourself in London town

For some fabulous reason London is fashion exhibition central at the moment. Of course the ongoing Wedding Dresses at the V&A ought to be on your to-do list when you find yourself making the pre-Christmas jaunt, but the Design Museum is calling our very souls with their?Women Fashion Power exhibition on the history of women’s power dressing. Vintage Vivienne Westwood and Diane Van Furstenberg worn by some of the most successful women in politics and business? *Heads to Aer Lingus’ website pronto*

Follow Jeanne Sutton on Twitter @jeannedesutun