Places David Plotz Wants to Go

Every year, the town of Menton, France, turns lemons and oranges into giant sculptures depicting windmills, dragons, and more.

A hoard of sky catalogs, astrophysical journals, even the works of Galileo and Copernicus.

England’s ancient oak tree has such an impressive girth, people have been hosting parties within the hollow trunk for centuries.

French prisoners carved these boats from the bones of their meat rations.

This small-town Connecticut restaurant gives each diner a free book from its vast library.

The vertical-axis windmills of ancient Persia have been grinding flour for 1,000 years and counting.

A bike train runs along a disused railway line through the tranquil French countryside.

One home in the historic strip hides secret compartments and the ghostly songs of long-gone canaries.

19th-century scientists would make the pilgrimage here to verify the precision of their measuring sticks.

The first high-tech company in the valley that actually worked with silicon devices.

An abandoned railroad tunnel is now filled with bioluminescent bugs.

The ruins of New Zealand's largest classical-style church.

The ruins of an 11th-century Norman castle with a rare, perfectly circular shape.

Norway has built what may be the world's most beautiful public toilet.

A botanically themed auditorium blooms within the world’s last operating double-decker theater.

A Belgian self-built tower inspired by the Bible and ancient civilizations.

Some 20,000 dust-covered unwanted vehicles languish in the desert.

Natural time capsule containing an alien ecosystem.

Strange rock formations tower above the river that snakes through this enchanting Icelandic canyon.

A strange mishmash of ruins and abandoned structures hint at the park's many lives.

Reaching the "Church in the Sky" requires scaling the cliff face of a sandstone pinnacle with a 650-foot drop.

Beautiful Victorian buildings from L.A.'s forgotten architectural past.

Houses are tucked between, on, and underneath giant boulders.

The palace window through which Protestant nobles flung two Catholic regents, thus sparking the Thirty Years' War.