APRIL 12-20

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

Held in San Francisco's Japantown over two consecutive weekends, the 41st annual Cherry Blossom Festival is a Japanese-American answer to the Japanese custom of hanami — flower viewing — held each spring in cities around Japan. San Francisco's event includes art and ikebana displays, traditional dance and taiko drumming as well as more contemporary music, exhibitions of martial arts, performance of the tea ceremony, calligraphy demonstrations. At 1 p.m. April 20, the annual Grand Parade begins to wind its way from City Hall to the Japan Center, featuring performers from California and Japan. The grand finale has everyone participating in a Japanese-style conga line, bringing in the taru mikoshi (sake barrel shrine). 415-563-2313; www.nccbf.org

NOW-JUNE 30

MARIE ANTOINETTE EXHIBIT

The Galeries nationales du Grand Palais in Paris is hosting an extraordinary art exhibit — a must-see if you're in the City of Lights in the next couple of months. It is The Marie Antoinette Exhibit, featuring nearly 300 works painstakingly gathered from around Europe, featuring France's best-known and perhaps least-understood queen, who was herself a patron of the arts (though she was sharply criticized for her spending). The last tribute of this scale paid to this famous historical figure dates back to 1955. The museum at 3, Ave. du General Eisenhower is open daily except Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesdays to 10 p.m. Concorde Hotels & Resorts is offering a special Marie Antoinette package with accommodations, free admission to the exhibit for two, daily breakfast and other perks from $300 a night; www.concordehotels.com.

JULY 25-27

GILROY GARLIC FESTIVAL

One of the most famous food festivals in the world, the Gilroy Garlic Festival has made a small community in Monterey County in Northern California very famous — and, over its 30-year life, brought in more than $7.5 million for local charities. Some three million people have visited the festival since its birth and more than 4,000 volunteers are involved in putting on the event, which makes use of more than two tons of garlic every year. Features range from musical entertainment to arts and craft sales, from the great garlic cooking contest to the annual calamari flare-up. And nobody cares if your breath smells of "the stinking rose." 408-842-1625; www.gilroygarlicfestival.com