Walk through spectacular aisles of hanging meat and wagon wheel–sized cheese at the world's largest wholesale food market.

Pitié-Salpêtrière was the dumping grounds for women who received the dreaded diagnosis of "hysterical."

A grotto-like lodge decorated with gilded mosaics, rocks and a noisy waterfall was the setting for the most sumptuous pleasure house of 1900s Europe.

The water-powered carriages are long gone, but for over a century this funicular railway has been the fastest route to the highest point in Paris.

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

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

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

Behind the pink curtain, Au Bonheur du Jour, an art gallery of erotic archives.

A museum of magic with a Sadist past.

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

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.

A counter-culture bookstore like no other hides in plain sight in the streets of Paris.

Paris' fabled purveyor of exotic taxidermy and natural history curios.

The very center of Paris is surrounded by a bevy of strange good luck rituals.

One of the oldest medical collections in Europe focusing on rare surgical instruments.

A museum of carnival attractions where you are invited to ride the rides.

Beggars were miraculously "cured" of their fake ailments when they returned home to this 17th century Paris slum each night.

The oldest stone house in Paris was built by its most famous alchemist.

This Parisian café is dedicated to great tea and the art of knitting.

In this Parisian garden's grotesque former life as a zoo it fed exotic animals to the bourgeois and put humans on exhibit.

Dedicated to the history and culture of smoking, this small museum now includes a vape lounge.

An odd museum dedicated to French fakes.