Places Vivian Shen Wants to Go

Rippling sand dunes frozen in the Arizona rock.

One person’s lost luggage is another person’s treasure.

This Algerian sweet shop serves confections in an eye-popping array of hues.

One of Jeff Koons’s largest sculptures and his first commemorative work.

For more than a century, Parisians have come for affordable dishes in a grand converted train station.

An odd museum dedicated to French fakes.

This frog-themed restaurant was frequented by Picasso, Saint-Exupéry, and more.

Once a 19th-century brasserie, this McDonald's exterior celebrates Alsatian design and the "King of Beer."

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

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

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

The water-powered carriages are long gone, but for over a century this funicular railway has been the fastest route to the highest point in Paris.

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

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

Walk upon the mementos of the dead in this Parisian courtyard paved with medieval tombstones.

"In the Dark" Restaurant in Paris offers dinner in complete darkness.

Indents in the pavement are all that remain from a grisly death machine in Paris.

Abandoned railway line circling the city of Paris.

Paris' linguistic guide to the international language of, yes, love.

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

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

France's national museum of scientific and industrial instruments.

A counter-culture bookstore like no other hides in plain sight in the streets of Paris.

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.