GBbabe

What are the interesting but odd little places you have visited that normally don't get talked about and may only get a quick line or two in a guidebook?

In Dublin, the Irish Jewis Museum. The only day I had to sightsee in Dublin was a Sunday and this place opened at 10:30 a.m. everything else was later. So I went to spend time before the G.B. Shaw house opened. In addition to a jumble of all kinds of stuff, there is also a genuine turn of the century (19th to 20th) kosher kitchen left over from one of the two houses knocked together in the early 20th century to create the first synagog - which later became the museum. I am used to museum recreations, but this kitchen actually was the center of a real family or two. Really, really neat!

In Paris - Balzac's house. A must see for anyone who likes to read his novels (I can't, but for some reason when I am in France, I keep ending up at places related to Balzac). In the springtime, there is supposed to be a wonderful garden. I was there in October, so I didn't see it. The main attractions here are silhouettes of all his characters and family diagrams that show how they are related.

Anyone else want to tell the world about a little-known place they like?

Cimbrone

Well, speaking of Balzac, I visited his lovely home in the Loire Valley. The town begins with an "S" (anyone know its name?)

Scarlett

Sache?

Cimbrone

Indeed, Scarlett. It is Sache!

LoveItaly

In the region of Veneto there is a little town by the name of Susegana. On the outskirts of Susegana is the Castle of Susegana. Now castles are not uncommon in Italy but this one was very old and the surronding fields were so delightful, the most lovely trees, wild grasses and wildflowers. Down a bank was a path and across the path was a very old gate. A friend of mine who works with the historical society in that area explained that the path was the original path used by the Roman Army coming and going to Rome. I sat on a stone along side the path for over half an hour completely away from civilization. Warm sun filtered through the trees, lovely wildflowers were all around me..a very special memory.

An awful story regarding the castle itself however. The castle has a tower that does not have any windows or slots whatsoever. I was told the Duke who was quite a hated man by the peasants married a very young and beautiful woman. His wife ended up having an affair with some young and handsome fellow from one of the families that worked the fields for the Duke. The Duke found out and had his wife and her lover put in the tower. He than had all of the openings in the tower enclosed. He left the two lovers in the tower to die a slow and horrible death!

kaneda

In most places, you'll find odd little places that most casual; visitors miss. I did two seven week tours of India on my own and saw endless such places and sites. More in other countries around the world which I would have missed out had I been on a tour.

Carrybean

The Dulwich Gallery for art near London & Penhaligon's or Floris for scents, soaps, etc. that are pricy but wonderful.

Danna

The outlet of Balzac's escape route lands in the Musee du Vin in Paris' 16th. It is really a hoot.

basingstoke1

In Trier, Germany the Karl Marx Museum. We were the only ones in it at a time when the city was full of tourists.

Girlspytravel

How many people know about the "Museo d'Arte Erotica" in Venice? Not many, I'll wager. I've not been there, but will do within the coming months (for various reasons, I forgot to go there this last trip Aug.-Sept.-too many other things were going on, that's for sure!)

Located just off the Calle dei Fabbri from Piazza San Marco, it encompasses 4 floors, and from what I've heard, encompasses very tastefully done temporary and permanent exhibitions of "libertine Venice" where aspects of sexuality in Venice through the centuries of "la Serenissima" are displayed. I think most people don't know that during the 15-1600's Venice had something like 10,000 courtesans for a 100,000 plus population-a pretty extraordinary number, by any measure, for the sex trade. A particularly interesting section is "Venezia di Piacere" (Venice of Pleasure)-an exhibition concerning the famous courtesans and erotic poets of Renaissance Venice. This museum defintely represents yet another aspect of the dreamy, mysterious Venice, which is not oft discussed:

The website:

http://www.museodarteerotica.it/EN/m...php?idmostre=5

derekflint

The Museum of Communism in Prague. Surprised me how well done and interesting it was.

Giorgio deChirico's house in Rome. Lots of examples of this quirky artist's work. Right by the Spanish Steps.

grimmy

The oddest small museum we've visited is the Frog museum in Estavayer-le-lac, Switzerland. Several hundred stuffed frogs doing human activities. Strange but cute!http://www.museedesgrenouilles.ch/ht...sche/index.htm

GBbabe

Oh grimmy!

How....?????
They look like preserved, stuffed frogs? It reminds me of those horrible plastisized people exhibits now going around. But if we go to Switzerland to ride the trains, I might see if we can fit it in!

jsmith

The delightful town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset has an interesting chained library in the Minster Church of St. Cuthburga.

In Paris you can visit the Jardin Atlantique atop the office buildings above the Gare Montparnasse. Entry is free thru an elevator opposite the Meridien Montparnasse Hotel on Rue du Commandant Mouchette.

I've yet to visit but I'd love to visit the Brunel Engine House in Rotherhithe (London). The Brunels were one of Englands's greatest engineering families and responsible for the first underwater tunnel in the world.

GBbabe

I went to the Brunel Engine House. It is a nice small museum that is worth a visit for people interested in the Brunels. Absolutely amazing what they did.

jsmith

Thanks, GBbabe. You are the only person ever to mention it. They certainly were a marvelous family.

cigalechanta

For me, L'Harmas, outside of Orange(5 miles NE) in Sérignan-du-Comtat.It is the estate of poet and most famous entomologist Jean-Henri-Fabre. I collect whatever books I can find(rarely) in Englsh but his mushroom drawings are out of print and never could I afford them. His house and grounds are worth the visit and especially for me his "work room."