Places froeckmann Wants to Go

Despite being considered a thoroughly American sport, basketball's oldest surviving playing field is found in the basement of a Paris YMCA.

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

The floorboard scrawling of a tragic madman is on public display outside a Paris hospital, much to the dismay of its opponents.

Museum on French naval history, with magnificent figureheads, a historic diving suit, and a boat used by Napoleon.

The headless bodies of more than 1,300 guillotined victims of the Reign of Terror are buried here in mass graves.

This off-limits room in the National Library of France is home to a system of pneumatic tubes, once used to bring books to readers.

A popular shrine where the Blessed Virgin allegedly appeared in 1830, displaying a holy armchair and two incorruptible remains of Lady Saints.

This museum in a Paris apartment gives a unique look at the iconic French singer's life.

This Paris art space celebrates the creativity and ingenuity that springs from abject poverty, especially in Africa.

Remains of Roman amphitheater hidden in a sleepy quarter of Paris.

The former home of France's controversial pop maestro is almost completely covered in ever-changing tributes and graffiti.

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

Skeletons, medical artifacts, and other obscure and precious treasures all displayed in a wooden pharmacist's cabinet.

Hidden away in a modern library are the remains of one of the 18th century's most celebrated wunderkammers.

Noirish green neon marks the location of one of the oldest private detective agencies in France.

Natural history museum celebrating biodiversity with a parade of taxidermy animals.

Original cabaret handbills, posters, and feline artwork are a purrfect highlight of the Museum of Montmartre.

This surreal statue brings a famous French novel about a supernatural cad to arresting life.

A modern-day Lascaux cave underneath Paris.

One of the last umbrella repair shops in Paris upholds the nostalgic art of umbrella making.

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

A grotto-like lodge decorated with gilded mosaics, rocks and a noisy waterfall was the setting for the most sumptuous pleasure house of 1900s Europe.

In the best of all possible worlds, everyone will get a chance to see this statue in which Voltaire's heart is interred.

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