Do these monsters look familiar? The gargoyles on this church are all from pop culture.

The largest underground church in Europe.

The mental institution where Van Gogh created some of his most famous work now allows guests to walk in the artist's footsteps.

Science fiction's grandfather has a fittingly marvelous tomb.

This salt marsh in Southern France is as pink as the flamingos that inhabit it.

An icy lake tucked among jaw-dropping alpine panoramas.

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

A modern-day Lascaux cave underneath Paris.

Original cabaret handbills, posters, and feline artwork are a purrfect highlight of the Museum of Montmartre.

Ancient paintings known as the "Sistine Chapel of Cave Art."

Twelve grave-faced marble angels guard the emperor's tomb at Les Invalides.

One of the greatest maze designer’s greatest mazes.

Sacked by Vikings, blessed by William the Conqueror, dealt a fatal blow during the French Revolution—these ruins have seen it all.

Exquisite wall sculptures carved in secret by an early quarryman in an obscure corner of the Paris Catacombs.

The ruins of a Duke's bucolic dream, where camels once roamed alongside "Dutch" windmills and faux-Italian vineyards.

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

Statue of death tucked in the University of Medicine courtyard.

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

Medieval museum built over Roman baths that features famous tapestries of a lady and a unicorn.

Down a cobblestone alleyway is a museum dedicated to Romanticism, with a secret garden.

A subterranean shelter remains intact under a busy Paris railway station.

A museum on the history of Paris, including a set of Napoleon's toiletries, Proust's room, and relics of the Revolution.

A Parisian cemetery where the elite and artistic are interred beneath an eccentric collection of tombs.

Egyptian Revival movie palace abandoned for decades and restored in 2013.