A memorial to the nearly 10,000 American soldiers laid to rest on the beaches of Normandy during WWII.

The mummified heart of Louis XVII, the lost dauphin of the French Revolution.

An ancient ossuary in Rouen.

Located in the house where Gustave Flaubert was born, this odd museum has more to do with medical grotesquery than the Western novel.

The US Navy's only submarine museum is also home to the world's first nuclear submarine.

The author of Uncle Tom's Cabin was neighbors with Mark Twain while living in this Connecticut home.

Holding multiple historical boats and an entire 19th century village, this New England attraction is the largest maritime museum in the world.

With some 500,000 books across five buildings, this bookstore is a reader's paradise.

Quirky castle designed by the American actor best known for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage.

The celebrated eyesore created by starry-eyed sweethearts.

A 16th-century fountain marks the site of a lost medieval cemetery once filled with mass graves.

This bridge was constructed from the rubble of the infamous Bastille.

This surreal statue brings a famous French novel about a supernatural cad to arresting life.

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

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

Medieval museum built over Roman baths that features famous tapestries of a lady and a unicorn.

Site of a classic 19th-century physics experiment to prove the earth is rotating.

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

Paris' linguistic guide to the international language of, yes, love.

France's most famous cemetery, with some of its most curious tombs.

This iconic Parisian bookstore doubles as the "Tumbleweed Hotel" for traveling writers.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

A grand Gothic Revival basilica with stained glass depictions of Montreal's religious history has only one soul resting in its crypt.

This lovely, if imposing, piece of Canadian gothic is possibly the most photographed hotel in the world.