The Atlas Obscura Guide To

Hidden
Paris

Discover 125 Cool and Unusual Things to Do in Paris, France

Unusual
Attractions
in Paris

Community Picks Recently Added

Catacombes de Paris.

Catacombes de Paris

The Catacombs hold secrets much stranger than the bones stacked within them.

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Vampire Killing Kit

Museum of Vampires and Legendary Creatures

The macabre collection of Jacques Sirgent, an expert scholar on the undead and all of their trappings.

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Added by Laetitia Barbier

59 Rivoli in 2005.

59 Rivoli

Notorious artist squat renovated into legal studios.

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Added by Allison

Inside a tunnel

Petite Ceinture

Abandoned railway line circling the city of Paris.

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Added by Allison

Père Lachaise Cemetery

France's most famous cemetery, with some of its most curious tombs.

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Added by meelar

Front of the house

House of Nicolas Flamel

The oldest stone house in Paris was built by its most famous alchemist.

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Added by Allison

Shakespeare and Company

Bookstore serves double duty as "Tumbleweed Hotel."

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Added by Madiha Bataineh

Museum of the History of Medicine

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

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Added by Allison

The oval reading room at the Bibliothèque nationale.

Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France)

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

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Added by cinapelayo

(Flickr/Bebulaki)

I Love You Wall

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

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Added by serflac

Musée des Arts Forains

Musée des Arts Forains

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

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Montmartre cemetery

Montmartre Cemetery

A horde of stray cats rule in this secluded Parisian cemetery under a bridge.

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Added by Luke J Spencer

Paris Point Zero

Paris Point Zero

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

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Added by EricGrundhauser

Gustave Eiffel's Secret Apartment

Gustave Eiffel's Secret Apartment

High atop the Eiffel Tower is a small apartment built exclusively to entertain the science elite and make the rest of Paris jealous.

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Added by EricGrundhauser

Schomburgk's Deer

The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.

48.8422, 2.3563

Added by Allison

Jacques Noël

Un Regard Moderne Bookstore

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

48.8536, 2.3425

Added by Laetitia Barbier

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Unique
Food & Drink
from Paris

Vin Mariani

Gastro Obscura

Vin Mariani

Presidents and popes loved this cocaine-infused wine.

Gastro Obscura

Added by rachelrummel

Get weekly dispatches on the world’s most wondrous food and drink with Gastro Obscura.

Explore Paris, France

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chanteperdrixmathieu has been to Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy

happykamill wants to go to Musée d'Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière

happykamill wants to go to Pont de la Concorde

happykamill wants to go to The Gravestone Courtyard

happykamill wants to go to La Conciergerie

Stories
About Paris

A Guinea baboon in the Paris zoo.

50 Escaped Baboons Shut Down a Paris Zoo

Precisely how they got out remains a mystery.

by Natasha Frost

January 26, 2018

Experts confirmed that <em>Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry</em> (1886) was sketched by Vincent van Gogh.

Found: Two New Drawings by Vincent van Gogh

Sketches of Montmartre by the elusive Dutch Postimpressionist.

by Vittoria Traverso

January 16, 2018

A corpse is carried out through the morgue, c. 1840s.

Death as Entertainment at the Paris Morgue

In the late 19th century, tourists flocked to see bodies and guess how they got there.

by Michael Waters

January 11, 2018

A 19th-century engraving of the Marquis de Sade, whose works were as political as they were pornographic.

The Manuscript of '120 Days of Sodom' Has Been Declared a National Treasure

A nation embraces the Marquis de Sade's controversial masterpiece.

by Natasha Frost

December 18, 2017

New York's Times Square was home to a number of these adult movie theaters, many of which were closed during the AIDs epidemic.

The Little Death of the Adult Movie Theater

The final erotic cinema in Paris is closing its doors after over 40 years.

by Natasha Frost

December 04, 2017

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's "Monument des Aéronautes" once stood proudly in the Porte des Ternes.

France's Lost Pigeon-and-Balloon Memorial Is Well Worth Remembering

The statue—made by the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty—paid tribute to a flock of 19th-century war heroes.

November 16, 2017

A Parisian inspects mushrooms growing in the tunnels underneath the city.

The Secret History of Paris's Catacomb Mushrooms

In the 1800s, farmers cultivated mushrooms in abandoned quarries underneath the French capital.

by Emily Monaco

October 31, 2017

A market where rats, cats, and dogs were sold for eating.

During an 1870 Siege, Trapped Parisians Dined on Rat, Cat, and Elephant

In a desperate time, the zoo became a source of food.

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