Places aemem Wants to Go

This salt marsh in Southern France is as pink as the flamingos that inhabit it.

Hundreds of hidden passageways weave through the old quarters of Lyon.

A cave dwelling that was started by the Celts, expanded by monks, and finished by knights.

At Monet's beloved home you can still see the Japanese bridge, waterlilies, and weeping willows that were the subjects of some of his most iconic paintings.

A series of abstract, silly sculptures represent the works of a great modern classical composer.

An icy lake tucked among jaw-dropping alpine panoramas.

This historic island prison holds one of the dungeons from the Count of Monte Cristo even though it is a work of fiction.

Ancient paintings known as the "Sistine Chapel of Cave Art."

Once a 19th-century brasserie, this McDonald's exterior celebrates Alsatian design and the "King of Beer."

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

Sacked by Vikings, blessed by William the Conqueror, dealt a fatal blow during the French Revolution—these ruins have seen it all.

An off-the-beaten-path boutique stuffed with an eclectic collection of upcycled goods.

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

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

The first green space constructed on an elevated viaduct.

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.

Statue of death tucked in the University of Medicine courtyard.

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

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

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

A Parisian cemetery where the elite and artistic are interred beneath an eccentric collection of tombs.

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

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

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