Places Pengwn Wants to Go

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.

This charming cobbled backstreet is the most Instagramable street in Paris, much to the residents' annoyance.

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

The first green space constructed on an elevated viaduct.

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

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

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

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

The remaining relics of the patroness of Paris lie in a chapel under a striking double spiral staircase.

Site of a classic 19th-century physics experiment to prove the earth is rotating.

Statue of death tucked in the University of Medicine courtyard.

One of the oldest medical collections in Europe focusing on rare surgical instruments.

This massive library holds what was once the largest book collection in the world.

An all-American grocery store in Paris sells U.S. "cuisine" like Pop-Tarts and Heinz ketchup to homesick ex-pats.

A surrealist timepiece by the artist of melting clocks.

France's national museum of scientific and industrial instruments.

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

This banal Parisian entranceway is not what it seems.

A mechanized clock where a man fights off a dragon, crab, and rooster.

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

Notorious artist squat renovated into legal studios.

A Parisian exterminator's shop whose storefront displays stuffed rats hanging from traps.

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

An "inside out" building in the historical center of Paris, featuring Europe’s largest modern art museum.