The only university zoological museum in London houses extinct animals, bizarre natural history specimens, and a Micrarium of microscopic creatures.

Eighty million natural history specimens call this gargantuan museum home.

This small island, a byproduct of 19th-century canal construction, is now home to a charming Japanese garden.

Home to the "Rat King" of Nantes and other wonders of the natural world.

Massive puppet-automaton machines created by French artist collective Machines de l’Ile.

This subterranean studio is filled with fascinating kinetic art.

This museum inside Amsterdam's largest cemetery explores how people deal with death.

This cheese shop also houses a museum devoted to Dutch dairy.

A Portuguese Jewish cemetery filled with stunning grave monuments that date back to 1614.

Famed for its pie, this eatery has a hidden tunnel that allowed Catholics to secretly walk to church during the Reformation.

An ancient passage filled with stalls selling used books, once frequented by Vincent Van Gogh.

This gorgeous reading room houses the oldest and largest art history library in the Netherlands.

The world's first zoo for microbes collecting the horrible and wonderful things living on and around us.

A curious collection dedicated to human and animal anatomy and pathology.

Cat art as far as the eye can see.

Established in 1638 to battle the Black Death, Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam is a treasure trove of rare flora.

Museum preserving torture methods from the past.

A floating cat sanctuary on an Amsterdam canal.

The world's only museum devoted to the wonders of fluorescence.

The oldest stone house in Paris was built by its most famous alchemist.

A horde of stray cats rule in this secluded Parisian cemetery under a bridge.

Notorious artist squat renovated into legal studios.

This massive library holds what was once the largest book collection in the world.

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