The somewhat misnamed 'Garden of Shells' lovingly built from found objects.

One woman's decades-long obsession with the "La Fée Verte."

An antique curios dealer and hybrid taxidermist.

A charming flea market shop dedicated to retrofuturistic apparati.

This Parisian café sticks almost exclusively to an ethos of reuse.

First a horse rendering plant, then a 19th century landfill, this beach is full of glass from thousands upon thousands of broken bottles.

The innovative Nigerian floating school that may just be a glimpse into the future of design in a world of troubling climate changes.

A strange aquarium with stuffed fish, and almost no water for them to swim in.

This whimsical castle of grottoes was the labor of love of a French postman, and one of the greatest achievements of outsider architecture.

One of the greatest maze designer’s greatest mazes.

Nicknamed the "Museum of Horrors," this French anatomical collection has been fascinating visitors for over a century.

A colorful piece of contemporary art cheerfully clashes with Lyon's historical architecture.

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.

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

An art world insider finds himself battling for his artistic home.

These quaint French houses dangle precariously over a precipice.

The fantastic architectural models of a French traveler.

When the imprisoned pope's remains were finally returned to the Vatican, his heart stayed behind in France.

Vaucanson's most famous automaton, brought back to life.

Natural mummies hidden in the crypt of a medieval French church.

A snowy highland notorious for unexplained aircraft crashes is France's own Bermuda Triangle.