A couple of little adventure items...first the newest (at least to us) tourist scam, which we saw several times over the past two days. On Thursday, an older lady stopped next to Ken and picked up a gold wedding band. She immediately asked him if it was his and then handed it to him. He said no, and handed it back...she said then you go ahead and take it as you must be lucky to get this gold ring. He said no, and we walked away. We found out that if you take it, she then comes back to ask for some euro in appreciation for the ring. Ok, who is dumb enough to take the ring in the first place? Thankfully not us!
 
Our luck with Metro tickets the first day was also suspect. I like buying "cardet de dix" which is a packet of 10 tickets for 13euro. Easy to use and you have stack for the day. Unfortunately, out of our first 10...only 3 worked! Ken ended up jumping the turnstile to get in. So, we bought another 10 and then I couldn't find them in my purse (It is a new purse and I'm not used to it yet). So, just bought two until I figure out the purse thing. Luckily, I did find them and we had no further metro incidents.  
 
We started the day taking the infamous Metro to Place de la Concord and walking through the Tullieries to the Louvre. The Louvre is massive and isn't manageable for a few day trip, so we were just going to go inside to see the shops. Unfortunately, the line to get just through security was insane...so we skipped it and headed toward Notre Dame.   To get there, we walked down the Seine River, enjoying the sights and sounds. It is ND's 850 year anniversary, and as such they have built this obnoxious structure in the square in front of the church. It is like a viewing area with bleachers...??? Huh? Yeah, like that so goes with the ambiance of a church. Oh well, we then got to stand in a long line, that thankfully went quickly into the church. ND is gothic and very impressive...not my favorite, but still as churches go is quite cool. 
 
From Notre Dame, we had to take the pilgrimage across the street Shakespeare and Company, the famous English bookstore.  The old guy, who just recently died, provided room/board for students to work there...no wages, but with food/lodging it is quite a place for a student to stay/work for a few months.  
 
At this point we had worked up a bit of an appetite and stopped by a little lebanese place for some hummos, taboulih and grape leaves.   After our afternoon snack, we found the d'Orsay museum, which as a great selection of Renoir, Monet, Degas and other famous impressionists paintings/art. It is in an old train station and is quite stunning to see. We were able to see many of the famous paintings that we all see in print...Monet's Starry Night, Whistler's Mother, Monet's Water Lilies in addition to some interesting ones that are not so famous.   
 
By now we were ready for a rest and headed back to the hotel. However, one of the cafes next to the hotel was calling our name, so we stopped for some champagne and bread/cheese (very French!). However, we chose the one cafe in Paris that doesn't serve bread/cheese and we got pizza instead. It is still bread/cheese right?  
 
After a quick nap, we decided to do something very different and took the Metro to the Pigalle area to find a jazz club. Pigalle is not a place that we would normally visit, as it is the seedy area of the city. Moulin Rouge the famous burlesque show is located there, but other than that there is little reason to be in the area. We did find the jazz club a few blocks up off the main boulevard. It was down in a cave-type setting and we heard some amazing music.   
 
Yes, it is now Midnight in Paris and time for bed!