This small, ingenious cannon once helped regulate Parisian life.

The heaviest gold coin ever minted.

The oldest continuously operating mint in the world that has been making coins since the 9th-century.

A glamorous hotel that once accommodated French resistance fighters and concentration camp survivors.

This 18th-century sundial was designed to calculate the date of Easter each year.

A museum dedicated to linguistics, from how babies learn to talk to endangered and extinct languages.

A museum dedicated to one of Paris’s most famous residents, tucked into a corner of one of the city’s most famous squares.

Stripes of human ashes cover a back lawn in the most sought-after burial grounds in Paris.

With a history of slaughter, feast, and famine, remnants of the pork industry decorate this area--even its church.

A simple plaque on the facade is the only reminder that the treaty ending the American Revolution was signed inside.

Former hunting lodge of a duke who was an avid collector of impressionist works.

The tomb of history's greatest potato promoter is surrounded by tubers.

This recessed garden protects thousands of mountain plants by creating its own microclimates.

The industrial architecture honors the laborers who brought the Exposition Universelle of 1900 to life.

The oldest and smallest cemetery in Paris is only open to the public twice a year.

The spiral staircase hidden inside this giant Parisian column was likely built for Catherine de Medici's astrologer.

135 bronze medallions mark a French meridian line which once rivaled the hotshot Greenwich timeline.

Museum on French naval history, with magnificent figureheads, a historic diving suit, and a boat used by Napoleon.

Remains of Roman amphitheater hidden in a sleepy quarter of Paris.

A lone cannonball remains lodged in the walls of the Hotel de Sens as a sober reminder of a revolution.

This structure atop a craggy cliff in one of the most beautiful parks in Paris boasts an unbeatable view.

The tradition of open-air secondhand and antiquarian bookselling in Paris dates back to the Renaissance.

Two awe-inspiring globes from the reign of the Sun King hang from the ceiling of France's national library.

The narrowest street in Paris.