valeriestrait's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau, France

The Grotesques of the Chapel of Bethlehem

Do these monsters look familiar? The gargoyles on this church are all from pop culture.
Paris, France

Cours des Miracles (Court of Miracles)

Beggars were miraculously "cured" of their fake ailments when they returned home to this 17th century Paris slum each night.
Tonnerre, France

Fosse Dionne

This natural French spring has been turned into a magical grotto by Roman and medieval constructions.
Asque, France

Gourgue d'Asque

A French valley with forests so lush it was nicknamed "the Small Amazonia of the Pyrenees."
Giverny, France

Claude Monet House and Gardens

At Monet's beloved home you can still see the Japanese bridge, waterlilies, and weeping willows that were the subjects of some of his most iconic paintings.
Aigues-Mortes, France

Salin Aigues-Mortes

This salt marsh in Southern France is as pink as the flamingos that inhabit it.
Montignac, France

Cave of Lascaux

Ancient paintings known as the "Sistine Chapel of Cave Art."
Peaugres, France

Labyrinthe des Dragons

One of the greatest maze designer’s greatest mazes.
Paris, France

Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche

The narrowest street in Paris.
Paris, France

Deyrolle Taxidermy

Paris' fabled purveyor of exotic taxidermy and natural history curios.
Hauterives, France

Le Palais Idéal

This whimsical castle of grottoes was the labor of love of a French postman, and one of the greatest achievements of outsider architecture.
Paris, France

Montmartre Funicular

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.
Paris, France

Le Défenseur du Temps (The Defender of Time)

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

Musée de Cluny

Medieval museum built over Roman baths that features famous tapestries of a lady and a unicorn.
Paris, France

Salvador Dalí Sundial

A surrealist timepiece by the artist of melting clocks.
Paris, France

The Gravestone Courtyard

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

Jules Lavirotte's 29 Avenue Rapp

A scandalous Art Nouveau collaboration that set Paris all atwitter at the turn of the century.
Paris, France

The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.
Mont Saint-Michel, France

Mont Saint-Michel

This 1,300 year old monastery built atop a single rock was once only accessible depending on the whims of the tide.