Places EricaInCA Wants to Go

An image of the legendary saint stands in the shadow of a cathedral she liberated.

Guests can stay at a hotel in the former French abbey where lie the tombs of King Henry II and King Richard the Lionheart.

The French leader's hat sits in a glass case at the oldest restaurant in Paris.

This French anatomy museum greets guests with a skinless man, mid-shovel.

Lady Liberty's original designer installed a little clone in this French fountain.

On this romantic tidal island reachable only at low tide the tomb of a famous French writer overlooks the sea.

This oddly shaped boulder in Paris is rumored to be cursed.

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

Lyon's "Wall of the Silk Weavers" is one of the largest murals in Europe.

A colossal sculptural lion built by the same man who designed the Statue of Liberty.

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

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

Stripes of human ashes cover a back lawn in the most sought-after burial grounds in Paris.

Hundreds of prehistoric stones, arranged in perfect lines in a French field.

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

Hundreds of secret cabinets built into the walls of legendary poisoner's private work room.

This lesser-known Frank Gehry building houses a treasure trove of cinema history.

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

Marvel at the opulent Art Nouveau interior while dining on dirt-cheap French classics.

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

Paris' fabled purveyor of exotic taxidermy and natural history curios.

Statue of death tucked in the University of Medicine courtyard.

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.

Abandoned railway line circling the city of Paris.