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

BDSM, 1930s Style.

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

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

This little-known relic crypt holds stolen parts of a Roman Empress.

This off-limits room in the National Library of France is home to a system of pneumatic tubes, once used to bring books to readers.

Dedicated to the art of hunting, with juxtapositions of contemporary art.

Twelve grave-faced marble angels guard the emperor's tomb at Les Invalides.

A popular shrine where the Blessed Virgin allegedly appeared in 1830, displaying a holy armchair and two incorruptible remains of Lady Saints.

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

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

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

The subterranean "lake" below the Paris opera house inspired the Phantom of the Opera's lair.

A unrivaled and rather horrifying collection of wax dermatological models.

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

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

This Parisian fountain is a little bit fantasy and a little bit nightclub.

A majestic lion statue guards this Parisian botanical garden, and feeds on an unsettling item.

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

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

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

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

France's national museum of scientific and industrial instruments.

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