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

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

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

Natural history museum celebrating biodiversity with a parade of taxidermy animals.

A font of vintage porn on the silver screen.

An all-American grocery store in Paris sells U.S. "cuisine" like Pop-Tarts and Heinz ketchup to homesick ex-pats.

Hidden away in a modern library are the remains of one of the 18th century's most celebrated wunderkammers.

A Parisian exterminator's shop whose storefront displays stuffed rats hanging from traps.

In the best of all possible worlds, everyone will get a chance to see this statue in which Voltaire's heart is interred.

An overlooked marble is the only surviving in-place 18th century example of the measurement that changed how we define distance.

This former “ante-chamber to the guillotine” has been refurbished to illustrate the brutal history of French justice.

This charming cobbled backstreet is the most Instagramable street in Paris, much to the residents' annoyance.

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

A unrivaled and rather horrifying collection of wax dermatological models.

This statue was given to France by the United States to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution.

The curious underground history of keeping Paris clean.

The largest medical and anatomical collection in France lies hidden from the public.

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

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

A favorite Paris bar for U.S. expats, including Gershwin, Hemingway, and James Bond.

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

Ghosts of France's colonial past.

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

This crumbling, graffiti-covered mansion sits tantalizingly within reach of the proletariat who frequent a public park.