Zoo babies: Where to get your daily fix

The folks at Southaven, Miss., 30 minutes outside of Memphis, have one solution for anyone feeling down about the economy or the still-lingering winter: Try dancing to upbeat zydeco music and then get some gumbo in you. Lots of it. The 4th annual Creole Crawfish Festival kicks off at noon on Sunday. Attendees will be busy—there's the Zydeco dance instruction and contest, where newbies can learn the steps. And then there's the gumbo cook-off, where participants compete for the People's Choice Award. There will be lots of fresh boiled crawfish to sample—you can see how to eat these pesky crustaceans in this YouTube video, by the way. Also in attendance is a Louisiana band led by Thomas 'Big Hat' Fields, singing Cajun and French music, and a Latin drum section. Consider making a trip of it—if you mention the festival, you can get discounted rates at the Holiday Inn. Rates without the discount start at $85 per room per night. Snowden Grove Park, Southaven, Miss. Festivities start at noon and go until 6 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults; kids 12 and under free. Call 901/619-5865 for more info.

Walk down almost any Paris sidewalk and you're likely to be struck by the sweet smell of crêpes. Every city has its own street foods, and the favored snack in this town is a thin pancake stuffed with melted savories or sugary spreads. Street crêpes are inexpensive, portable, and available at any hour, which makes them perfect for moments when you don't have time or money to spare. Native to the northwestern French region of Brittany, crêperies have proliferated around the country. Parisians flock to them at lunchtime for cheap combo deals like a drink and a galette (a savory crêpe made with buckwheat flour) for €5. Afternoon snackers stop by for their sweet fix: the crêpe au sucre (with sugar) or au citron (with lemon) are favored choices. Kids and Americans (that's me on both counts) go for the chocolate/hazelnut mess that is Nutella. I still remember my first encounter with a street crêpe in Paris. After hours of flea market foraging at the Marché aux Puces, I headed to a vendor on the street. In the wintry outdoor air, that first crêpe arrived hot and oozing with salty cheese. I cupped my cold fingers around the steaming mass and nibbled it like a rare treasure, not realizing at the time that the delicious bundle was probably the worst crêpe I'd ever eat. Even when they're soggy and filled with inferior ingredients, a bad street crêpe is still pretty good. But a great crêpe, as I've learned through years of extensively caloric research, can change your life. When I'm looking for a transformative pancake (and I often am), I head to the Crêperie Josselin (67 rue du Montparnasse, 14th arrondissement, 011-33/ 1-43-20-93-50). This sit-down restaurant is a dark and wood-filled, with lacy curtains and tiled walls. Your first sight upon entering will be an enormous slab of real Breton butter. The cook uses it on his griddle, giving the crêpes a golden color and a crisp, lacy edge. My regular lunch order (approaching fifty visits), is the complète: a galette that's stuffed with ham, egg and melted cheese. This glorifed egg McMuffin comes with a bowl of Breton cider and a dessert crêpe for only €10. Because it's served steaming on your table within minutes, it also qualifies as the best haute fast food in Paris. For those who want a more modern take on the crêpe, the Breizh Café (109 rue Vieille du Temple, 3rd arrondissement, 011-33/1-42-72-13-77) is another wildly popular destination. Here, an impressive list of artisanal ciders and shellfish starters complement some very creative crêpe cookery. The ingredients at this Marais hotspot are all organic, and the light-wood interior is a departure from traditional Breton décor. The crêperie's location, just down the street from bars like La Perle (78 rue Vieille du Temple) make the Breizh a great place for a pre-crawl dinner with friends.

Bright Spot in the Big Easy Checking in with New Orleans' Magazine Street. [New York Times] Good times rolling on for Mardi Gras New Orleans doesn't see any downturn from last year. [CNN] Strike a Pose A new exhibit in New York looks at the studied weirdness of fashion photography. [Slate.com] Advertise for the May Fair Hotel on Your Butt To celebrate London's fashion week, the publicity-hungry hotel commissioned jeans with 14-karat gold touches. [HotelChatter] Next upgrade for the A380: Bunk Beds? The Aerobus may have tiny, but cheaper, lay-flat seats. [Gadling] Ryanair to do away with check-in desks. The low-cost carrier continues to cut. [USATODAY] Green Island: Rethinking Tokyo Fanciful photos show a much greener Tokyo. [Treehugger] Hostels hustle to add an upmarket tag…and see our own list, too. [Boston Globe]

1969 was a monumental year in pop culture for lots of reasons—Woodstock, peace signs, the moon landing, Janis Joplin. It was also the year John Lennon staged a "bed-in for peace" in Montreal with his new wife, Yoko Ono. The pair stayed in bed for a week in Suite 1742 of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. They did it to protest the Vietnam War, letting reporters hang out with them. Their stunt was well-documented—350 radio stations in the U.S. alone picked up the story. To commemorate the event, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will host Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John and Yoko beginning Apr. 2. The free event, co-curated by Ono who loaned many of the items on display, includes drawings, videos, and unpublished photographs, along with other mementos from John and Yoko's life together. Montreal was the second bed-in; read about John and Yoko's first in Amsterdam in our recent article on Sexy Hotels. And as you might expect, the Queen Elizabeth has a package offer, so you can stage your own bed-in.