Day 3 (23 May) - Recap

Today began with a heated debate over coffee as to where Paris stands on the list of the world's most populous cities (answer: 22nd, with 9,638,000 peeps as compared with 5 for New York, which has around 16.6M and 53 for Philly with around 4.4M). Then we were off to pick up a Museum Pass, which gets you into most of the great museums and monuments for one price (and sometimes lets you bypass the line as well). After eating probably the best pain au chocolat ever (can't remember the name of the place, but it's on Rue St. Lazare right as you approach the Trinite from the East - it's on the South side of the street ) we hit up fnac (a big electronics/book/dvd/everything store) to get the passes. While there, we also picked up tickets for a jazz piano concert in St. Germain des Pres Church (more on that later - it was totally awesome). Then we hopped on the Metro down to the Tuileries Gardens where we walked around, ate crepe (thanks, Mike D.) and went to the Musee national de l'Orangerie, where Claude Monet's "Waterlilies" are on full display. These things are crazy! Then we got some sammiches (pate and saucisson) and headed to the garden in the Royal Palace to dine en plen aire. Off to the Louvre we went. We had downloaded the Rick Steve's podcast audio tour of the Louvre (we also have Versailles) so we hit up the highlights (Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Parthenon Friezes, and so on, and so on) with an eye toward returning in the next couple of days to see some more. Dinner (really just a snack) was at Les Deux Magots, which is one of the most famous of the grand cafes of Paris (supposedly Oscar Wilde was a fan). Then we saw Yaron Herman in l'Eglise de Saint Germain des Pres. It was neat to see a concert in a big old church. It was still semi-light out when it started so there was this ethereal blue glow due to the huge stained-glass windows. After the concert, we hit up some random Jazz Cafe for escargots, champagne, and argmangac (like cognac only even more nauseating) and it was off to bed, but not before picking up a Balisto bar (very strange, that) in a Metro vending machine. Tomorrow - Versailles.