Paris/Versailles - France: Palaces, Crêpes and Uh La La Shows

Truly, a fantastic city. We arrived to Paris and a friend of mine invited us to stay at his place, however he had an impromptu trip to Colombia, so we ended up having a complete condo for us!  It was very nice, even though we hoped to have had hung out with him more. His place was well located (by the Jardin du Luxembourg) and walking distance to many places!

Our first night we went to a crêperie. I loved it! The tradition is to have a glass of cider with your crêpe. They have all kinds of crêpes from veggies, to meats to sweet delicious ones like Nutella banana. Simply amazing! We went to quite a few :)

Of course, the next day we had purchased tickets to go up the "Tour Eiffel" (Eiffel Tower), once again you must reserve in advance as they are usually sold out (summer time). We paid double to be part a group (Fat Tire Tours) and we got to skip the line (2 hours approx) so completely worth €32 for both. 

Also, the tower lights up like a Christmas tree every night and there is a light show every hour on the hour. Here is how it looks!!

We enjoy walking as that's the best way to explore all the different areas, so we went through the Champs-Élysées without even looking for it just because it happens to be a big avenue that ends up  taking you to the the Arc du Triomphe.

We also walked another day to see Musée du Louvre, which is the most visited museum in the world!! 

Apparently around 9 million people visit the museum every year, of course because it the house of paintings like Da'Vinci's Mona Lisa.

It was interesting to see how people line up to see the Mona Lisa while in the same room as other amazing huge paintings that people pass inadvertently. Oh well, it was still pretty cool to see the real Mona Lisa with our own eyes. :)

Tons of things to see there, like Napoleon's apartments, some Greek sculptures dated from 160 B.C! .... Yes I know!!

Of course, after you walk through this complex building that used to be Napoleon's home before he decided to make it a museum to show the greatness of France and move to the Palace of Vesailles, you basically need to relax somewhere, so nothing better than a Jazz festival right in front of Le Louvre at the Tuileries Garden.

Another one we wouldn't miss is the 

Notre Dame Cathedral (completed in 1345). Another walking distance from our location, we happened to enter right before 6 PM mass and I'm so glad we did. It was great to see people from all over the world praying and some saying the same prayer but in different languages. 

We decided to visit the Château de Versailles (Palace of Versailles) which is only 30 min away from central Paris. Super easy to get to by local train. We decided to just enter to see the gardens and it was pretty magnificent as the gardens cover 800 hectares of land, with sculptures, lakes, and all kinds of sculpted pines. 

Locks of Love is a tradition in Paris. The tradition is to inscribe name or names of loved ones on the lock, lock it to a bridge and then throw the key into the Siene River. By throwing the key into the river, it represents everlasting love!! 

So we bought some locks for us and our families, locked them to the bridge and threw the keys into the river. One was for David's grandparents who always wanted to travel to Paris, but never got the chance. Feels amazing to do acts of kindness!!! 

And to finish our visit to this Uh La La city, we had to go to a cabaret show -Moulin Rouge type of thing. It was very entertaining as they also have acrobats plus dancers. (No pictures as they were not allowed, so you have to go to see it yourself) ;)