An astounding collection of taxidermy, fossils, skeletons, and even a few strange live beasts.

This triumphal arch celebrating the Sun King's conquest of Lille is a masterpiece of military architecture.

Tables of secondhand books fill the inner courtyard of this 17th-century stock exchange.

Local lore surrounds this unusual stone.

This traditional festival celebrates a family of wooden giants that have survived Nazis, wars, and religion.

This former cannon foundry and castle for the Counts of Flanders is now a public garden.

This unassuming sculpture depicts grandfather of science fiction Jules Verne and his brother as children.

A sublime medieval path adorns the marble floor of one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in France.

The encased skull that is widely believed to belong to St. John the Baptist.

Science fiction's grandfather has a fittingly marvelous tomb.

A centuries-old complex of hand-dug stone chambers has sheltered locals in times of trouble.

Deep in the limestone cliffs of the Alabaster Coast, a German fortress built during World War II.

This memorial museum chronicles the apocalyptic destruction of the First World War.

A moving memorial to the fallen and missing from WWI trenches.

A Cold War command center is hidden under an idyllic countryside.

An underground city of ancient quarry tunnels hid thousands of Allied soldiers in WWI.

A monument to the thousands of Canadian soldiers who died capturing the French ridge during World War I.

This small commune with an even smaller name appears to have an unlikely amount of dead ancestors.

A haunting museum chronicling the bloodiest battlefield of World War I.

Built in 1347, this belfry is one of the oldest in the world and survived intense bombing during World War I.

These crumbling Nazi artillery bunkers are now fair game for massive graffiti projects.

A ghostly and forgotten art deco bathhouse by the windy shore of Dunkirk, weathered but still standing.

This bunker in northern France was built by Nazi German forces with the intention of launching up to 50 V2 rockets at London each day.

This disused boat elevator was saved from the scrap heap so that visitors could tour its rusting skeleton.