A museum of carnival attractions where you are invited to ride the rides.

The history of radiation is on safe display at the foot of a radiation science laboratory.

A pink sandstone column once used in ancient times to measure one's belly after a night of debauchery.

On this romantic tidal island reachable only at low tide the tomb of a famous French writer overlooks the sea.

This enormous "cloth of the conquest" depicts the Norman invasion of England in mind-blowing detail.

The tradition of open-air secondhand and antiquarian bookselling in Paris dates back to the Renaissance.

This demon atop the Notre-Dame de Paris looks utterly bored.

The oldest continuously operating mint in the world that has been making coins since the 9th-century.

The celebrated eyesore created by starry-eyed sweethearts.

France's most famous cemetery, with some of its most curious tombs.

After immigrating to Paris in the 1970s, two brothers from Laos built a grocery store empire.

Remains of Roman amphitheater hidden in a sleepy quarter of Paris.

Wander among free-roaming storks at the sanctuary that helped save them from local extinction.

This museum houses an imposing skeleton army comprised of creatures great and small.

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

This recessed garden protects thousands of mountain plants by creating its own microclimates.

The water-powered carriages are long gone, but for over a century this funicular railway has been the fastest route to the highest point in Paris.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

This Parisian gem is one of the most incredible ethnographic museums in the world.

Peeing dogs guard the Roman hunting goddess atop a fountain at France’s Château de Fontainebleau.