Ghosts of France's colonial past.

This professional clown's home is an outsider art wonderland.

One of the last umbrella repair shops in Paris upholds the nostalgic art of umbrella making.

This modern French ossuary contains the jumbled bones of 130,000 WWI soldiers.

Monsters and miniatures are held in equal esteem at this wondrous museum.

For hundreds of years, automatons moving to metallic music have been marking the passage of time.

Two small chapels housed inside an ancient tree.

The only remaining collection of flayed figures made by French "madman" Honoré Fragonard.

A Gothic cathedral created from volcanic rocks.

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

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

Historic medieval fortified city in southwest France.

An icy lake tucked among jaw-dropping alpine panoramas.

The largest underground church in Europe.

Where the high court feasted, frolicked, and high courtesans put their royal lovers' diamonds to the test.

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

This massive blockhead sculpture hides an entire library.

This historic island prison holds one of the dungeons from the Count of Monte Cristo even though it is a work of fiction.

A cave dwelling that was started by the Celts, expanded by monks, and finished by knights.

A 14th century bridge built as a fortress, where the devil lurks on one of its towers.

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

Science fiction's grandfather has a fittingly marvelous tomb.

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

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