Architect Le Corbusier built his friend a cubist house to match his impressive collection of cubist art.

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

A series of abstract, silly sculptures represent the works of a great modern classical composer.

The narrowest street in Paris.

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 tradition of open-air secondhand and antiquarian bookselling in Paris dates back to the Renaissance.

The first green space constructed on an elevated viaduct.

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.

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

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

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

This Parisian café sticks almost exclusively to an ethos of reuse.

The very center of Paris is surrounded by a bevy of strange good luck rituals.

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 museum of carnival attractions where you are invited to ride the rides.

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

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

This small island, a byproduct of 19th-century canal construction, is now home to a charming Japanese garden.

An aluminum skeleton brings Chinese mythology to the French shore.

The vibrant buildings in the “capital of the comic strip” celebrate the art form that made it famous.

The largest underground church in Europe.

Bordered by forest on three sides and the ocean on the other, the Great Dune of Pilat is the highest sand dune in Europe.

An abandoned nightclub has become a vibrant work of art.