For hundreds of years, automatons moving to metallic music have been marking the passage of time.

Hundreds of hidden passageways weave through the old quarters of Lyon.

Monsters and miniatures are held in equal esteem at this wondrous museum.

A tiled, multi-level garden of survival in Lyon.

The fantastic architectural models of a French traveler.

Known as the "Dodo Manège," this carousel features a herd of animals that have disappeared—or may be gone soon.

Paris' fabled purveyor of exotic taxidermy and natural history curios.

An overlooked marble is the only surviving in-place 18th century example of the measurement that changed how we define distance.

An unusual number plate signifies the building's saucy past.

The former home of France's controversial pop maestro is almost completely covered in ever-changing tributes and graffiti.

Statue of death tucked in the University of Medicine courtyard.

A surrealist timepiece by the artist of melting clocks.

Behind the pink curtain, Au Bonheur du Jour, an art gallery of erotic archives.

The very center of Paris is surrounded by a bevy of strange good luck rituals.

This former “ante-chamber to the guillotine” has been refurbished to illustrate the brutal history of French justice.

A mechanized clock where a man fights off a dragon, crab, and rooster.

A Parisian exterminator's shop whose storefront displays stuffed rats hanging from traps.

"In the Dark" Restaurant in Paris offers dinner in complete darkness.