Places waywardwillard Wants to Go

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

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.

This Paris art space celebrates the creativity and ingenuity that springs from abject poverty, especially in Africa.

Dedicated to the art of hunting, with juxtapositions of contemporary art.

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

The former home of France's controversial pop maestro is almost completely covered in ever-changing tributes and graffiti.

Two awe-inspiring globes from the reign of the Sun King hang from the ceiling of France's national library.

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

Remains of Roman amphitheater hidden in a sleepy quarter of Paris.

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

A modern-day Lascaux cave underneath Paris.

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

This surreal statue brings a famous French novel about a supernatural cad to arresting life.

Hidden away in a modern library are the remains of one of the 18th century's most celebrated wunderkammers.

Natural history museum celebrating biodiversity with a parade of taxidermy animals.

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

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

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

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

The first green space constructed on an elevated viaduct.

How did a French journalist’s grave become the sexiest statue in the cemetery?

A unrivaled and rather horrifying collection of wax dermatological models.

In the best of all possible worlds, everyone will get a chance to see this statue in which Voltaire's heart is interred.

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