Before the electric telegraph, a chain of stone towers carried messages across France.

An ancient monastery, a locked room, and a mysterious book heist.

One man's stunning attempt at eco-friendly living.

The curious underground history of keeping Paris clean.

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

An aluminum skeleton brings Chinese mythology to the French shore.

Do these monsters look familiar? The gargoyles on this church are all from pop culture.

An unusual number plate signifies the building's saucy past.

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

A poem by Arthur Rimbaud is inscribed on the wall of a street that, while it is only one block long, plays a key role in multiple novels.

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

A short distance from the Eiffel Tower is the final resting place of several of the city’s more well-known and interesting characters.

A medieval church with largest and oldest collection of Renaissance frescoes in France.

A measuring mishap led to these artificial stone ladies losing their stomachs.

A quiet, semi-secret square with statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Virginia Woolf, and a conscientious objectors stone.

This sculpture combines the literary Alice with her real-life inspiration.

A surrealist timepiece by the artist of melting clocks.

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

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

For hundreds of years, automatons moving to metallic music have been marking the passage of time.

This statue stands in honor of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French author of 'The Little Prince' and an aviation hero.

After decades of damage, this feat of timekeeping and automaton art has been given a new lease on life.

Order a boozy baba au rhum at the oldest patisserie in Paris.

A museum on the history of Paris, including a set of Napoleon's toiletries, Proust's room, and relics of the Revolution.