Places EricaInCA Wants to Go

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

A favorite Paris bar for U.S. expats, including Gershwin, Hemingway, and James Bond.

This modest marker near Notre Dame identifies the very center of Paris.

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

The first modern cemetery of Lyon is complete with more than 200 chapels and monuments.

Monsters and miniatures are held in equal esteem at this wondrous museum.

The world's first funicular powered by a steam engine.

Explore the 500-year history of silk-making in Lyon at this museum, workshop, and boutique.

Nicknamed the "Museum of Horrors," this French anatomical collection has been fascinating visitors for over a century.

Saintly bones pressed into a wax effigy of a Catholic superstar.

This emotive sculpture was originally created for the 1878 World's Fair.

A simple plaque on the facade is the only reminder that the treaty ending the American Revolution was signed inside.

This 18th-century sundial was designed to calculate the date of Easter each year.

Shop at the 200-year-old store where Julia Child stocked up on copper cookware.

The approximate spot where the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar was put to death.

If you look closely at the oldest bridge in Paris, you might notice hundreds of ugly faces leering from its sides.

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.

Walk upon the mementos of the dead in this Parisian courtyard paved with medieval tombstones.

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

The spiral staircase hidden inside this giant Parisian column was likely built for Catherine de Medici's astrologer.

For more than a century, revolutionary graffiti has marked the wall of a Parisian church.

A melancholy jester sits on the grave of a famous 20th-century ballet dancer and choreographer.

French sculptor Paul Moreau-Vauthier transformed the site of a 19th-century massacre into a haunting memorial.