Rows of multicolored bathing huts paint the sand dunes with pops of color.

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

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

Lyon's "Wall of the Silk Weavers" is one of the largest murals in Europe.

These ruins reveal the remarkably intact layout of a Roman marketplace.

An unusual sand beach in the middle of a forest.

These colorful French islands spent a stint bootlegging booze during American Prohibition.

The room where Vincent van Gogh died.

One of the most powerful religious centers in the Middle Ages, dubbed the founder of Western monasticism.

Wall after wall of this French seaside neighborhood is intricately decorated with seashells and corals.

This building’s ghostly exterior reflects its former lives as a prison, school, and funeral home.

Remains of the artificial harbours invented for the Allied invasion of Normandy can still be seen at sea.

Bordered by forest on three sides and the ocean on the other, the Great Dune of Pilat is the highest sand dune in Europe.

An architectural oddity of six stories, accessed by graceful ramps.

This otherworldly French waterfall looks like its waters have turned to stone.

Bits of architecture from a town destroyed in World War I now decorate this hotel garden.

This futuristic observatory at the top of the Pyrénées offers unrivaled views.

These crumbling Nazi artillery bunkers are now fair game for massive graffiti projects.

An enchanting work of outsider art, full of whimsical sculptures and carvings.

The sunken structure looks like the victim of a catastrophic flood.

One of the largest ochre quarries in the world, hidden in a limestone landscape.

The post-apocalyptic remnants of a bucolic town ruined by a plane crash.

Ivy-covered Medieval tunnels cut through this charming town in France's Loire Valley.

The 16th-century church was kept in its ruined state as a reminder of the casualties of World War I.