Places obstakel Wants to Go

A poignant museum dedicated to the history of the Dutch resistance against Nazi occupation

A grassy pyramid named after a French battle.

This functional solar system model was inspired by the famous Eisinga Planetarium.

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

The industrial architecture honors the laborers who brought the Exposition Universelle of 1900 to life.

A modern-day Lascaux cave underneath Paris.

The curious underground history of keeping Paris clean.

This Parisian fountain is a little bit fantasy and a little bit nightclub.

The macabre collection of Jacques Sirgent, an expert scholar on the undead and all of their trappings.

This recessed garden protects thousands of mountain plants by creating its own microclimates.

A mud statue stands in the dark tunnels, seeming to hold up the weight of the city above.

This structure atop a craggy cliff in one of the most beautiful parks in Paris boasts an unbeatable view.

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

A majestic lion statue guards this Parisian botanical garden, and feeds on an unsettling item.

The history of radiation is on safe display at the foot of a radiation science laboratory.

Known as the "Dodo Manège," this carousel features a herd of animals that have disappeared—or may be gone soon.

This museum houses an imposing skeleton army comprised of creatures great and small.

The ruins of a Duke's bucolic dream, where camels once roamed alongside "Dutch" windmills and faux-Italian vineyards.

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

The subterranean "lake" below the Paris opera house inspired the Phantom of the Opera's lair.

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

Exquisite wall sculptures carved in secret by an early quarryman in an obscure corner of the Paris Catacombs.

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