Hey everyone ..

My boyfriend and I will be in Paris next week to celebrate his 30th birthday. He has never been to Paris .. so I am trying to find a wonderful restaurant to celebrate his birthday, which will also be our first night.

I am looking for a wonderful, typical, moderate-high French restaurant .. a place with a ton of atmosphere .. a place with a view of everything Parisian.

Also, he loves Jazz. So, I am looking for a Jazz bar to take him after dinner. FYI, we are staying in the Latin Quarter and his birthday night is on a Wednesday.

Any suggestions?

Merci!

You should wait to pick the jazz bar until you can check the local Parisian listings -- and if it doesn't have to be a surprise, he might want to make the selection himself.

(And he might want to pick a night he isn't jet lagged!)

Kill two birds with one stone. Dinner and Jazz at Le Petit Journal, 71 blvd. Saint Michel.

I highly suggest 7 Lezards. It's close to the Latin Quarter. The jazz is fantastic and the adjoining restaurant is also very good. Here's a schedule of acts, direction, etc. - click on "program", then "mars".

http://www.7lezards.com/welcome.htm

Haven't been personally, but le Bilboquet in the 6th is a cafe/restaurant with live music.

If your lodging has a radio, you'll want to tune to 89.90 FM, a great jazz station. Restaurants? Bofinger or the Bouillon Racine.

Le Cave du Franc Pinot, 1 quai de Bourbon, tel. 01 46 33 60 64, on Ile. St. Louis where pont Marie meets the island. A very down to earth, mellow place and very smokey. When you walk into the place, it looks like a bar, however, the stairs on the right go down to a restaurant which overlooks the stage, and a bar down one more level. I would compare it to Snug Harbor in N.O.(if it still exists). We do enjoy it but never stay long to the smoke.

That should be due to the smoke. How much do you want to spend on dinner?

I was at 7Lezards, it is in the Marais.

We've been to Bilboquet and really liked it--DH was a jazz musician and we're big fans, but I recall it being a bit "older" crowd (we're in our 50s), but if that doesn't bother you, you might enjoy it--they were doing very traditional jazz the night we were there.