No over-the-top birthday bash for Jay-Z this year. Instead the rapper planned a subdued, very private celebration in Paris with longtime girlfriend Beyoncé Knowles.

Okay, Okay … There was a chorus of strip-tease artists tossed in for spice.

One year after the duo celebrated Jay-Z’s big day by inviting 20 friends to a three-day Caribbean party in St. Martin, they turned down the volume and turned up the romance to celebrate his 38th.

After Jay-Z’s surprise duet with Kanye West in England on Dec. 2, sources tell PEOPLE he headed to Paris and checked quietly into the Hotel Meurice on Monday.

Knowles arrived the next day, jetting in (on a commercial flight!) following Sunday’s performance at “Movies Rock.”

The two spent a leisurely day inside their hotel suite (which overlooks the famed Tuileries garden) and, at one point, Knowles hit the hotel’s luxurious spa.

As evening fell, the couple took a Maybach limo for a romantic drive around the City of Light before settling down to an intimate dinner upstairs at popular restaurant L’Avenue.

Afterward, they pulled up for the late show at the Crazy Horse cabaret, where they sipped champagne and watched the cast run through the club’s new “Forever Crazy” revue.

On Wednesday, the couple ventured out again, this time for lunch at the nearby Hotel Costes.