The only residents of this abandoned housing development full of identical castles are stray cats and dogs.

Stepping away from the glitz of mobsters and casinos to learn about the other history of Vegas.

The neon signs from Las Vegas' past find their final resting place at this unusual graveyard.

Before it was abandoned and left to rust alongside the road, this riverboat starred in a John Wayne movie.

The now-abandoned tunnels were built for the transcontinental railroad on the route where the first wagon train entered California.

A statue commemorating the heroic life of a Viking postman who was the Godfather of California skiing.

This 19th century hydroelectric powerhouse was the first of its kind.

Eclectic collection of dark and macabre antiques.

Downieville's largest Gold Rush structure still standing has one of the longest bars in California.

"You don't need a rocket scientist to build a steam engine, but we've got one." -Museum docent on the credentials of a restoration volunteer.

The modest home of the very immodest dancer who cost a king his crown.

A line of disused military bunkers built to defend against Nazi invasion lies hidden on the outskirts of the city.

This "mathematical tower" was an observatory, early skyscraper, and place to reflect on all of nature and the cosmos.

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

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

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

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

Indents in the pavement are all that remain from a grisly death machine in Paris.

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

A horde of stray cats rule in this secluded Parisian cemetery under a bridge.

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

A scandalous Art Nouveau collaboration that set Paris all atwitter at the turn of the century.

The curious underground history of keeping Paris clean.

The Sun King's military models, saved from the Louvre.