Places nancybdeol Wants to Go

Read a book next to a Midtown waterfall.

A dilapidated dock tells the story of Titanic’s missed arrival.

This lower Manhattan bar is set up in an old bank vault that rests beneath a skyscraper that hides even more historic splendor.

The world’s oldest and biggest bookstore stocking only mystery, crime fiction, espionage, and thrillers.

The oldest family-run luncheonette in New York, last renovated in 1948, still serves food and drinks the old-fashioned way.

Try not to get slimed in Tribeca.

Dodge prohibitionists and slide through the telephone booth in Crif Dogs.

Tucked in the back of this amazing antique store is an important piece of medical history.

A crumbling hospital from the 1850s on Roosevelt Island.

In this Parisian garden's grotesque former life as a zoo it fed exotic animals to the bourgeois and put humans on exhibit.

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

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

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

This banal Parisian entranceway is not what it seems.

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

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.

Where the high court feasted, frolicked, and high courtesans put their royal lovers' diamonds to the test.

Pitié-Salpêtrière was the dumping grounds for women who received the dreaded diagnosis of "hysterical."

Twelve grave-faced marble angels guard the emperor's tomb at Les Invalides.

A lone cannonball remains lodged in the walls of the Hotel de Sens as a sober reminder of a revolution.

This life-size replica of the Statue of Liberty's flame is also a tribute to Princess Diana by default.

Statue of death tucked in the University of Medicine courtyard.

This statue was given to France by the United States to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution.