California’s Best Kept Secret: A Century old Subterranean Garden

Fresno, California tends to be one of those cities that people are ‘just passing through’ on their way to see something else. But pass through too quickly and you’ll miss out on a little secret subterranean paradise… More of an underground mansion, the Forestiere Gardens are a manmade creation of sprawling subterranean passageways, courtyards and…

America’s Underground Sin City

There’s the Wild West, and then there’s it’s even wilder underbelly. For locals of Hill County, Montana, that underbelly hides in the subterranean village of Havre, whose passages once bustled with saloons and opium dens, bordellos and mercantile shops galore. For decades, it was on the brink of crumbling away in silence. Now, it’s finally…

200 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Go Down to the Basement in Paris

Underneath the product aisles of a well-known Monoprix supermarket branch in central Paris, where I’ve often popped into myself to pick up a bottle of wine and some olives before attending parties nearby, the skeletons of up to 200 lost souls have been discovered buried in a mass grave. For some of us reading of course, this may very…

London’s Subterranean Secret: The Forgotten Mail Train

As a former Londoner, born & raised, who thought she knew everything there was to know about the city, finding out that there’s been a secret Royal Mail underground train line beneath our feet for over 85 years was just a little bit shocking. A reader sent me a tip this morning about a group…

That Time Someone Found a Ferrari Buried in Their Front yard

In February, 1978, a Dino 246 GTS was discovered by a group of kids digging in the front yard of their home in Los Angeles. After much speculation and media attention with very few leads, it was eventually concluded that the car, which had been declared stolen four years prior by its owners, had been buried…

The Nazi Bunker Sitting Under a Paris Train Station

Unbeknownst to the thousands of passengers that pass through the station each day, right under their feet, between platforms 2 and 3 at the Gare de l’Est (East Train Station) lies an old concrete World War II bomb shelter. One of the busiest stations in the heart of Paris, the 19th century terminal is hiding a 120m²…

The Charming Village with a Billion Dollar Secret

Disguised by two seemingly innocent village homes, none of the locals of Cochem knew that for two decades during the height of the Cold War, 15 Billion German Mark– the vault of West Germany’s central bank– was being stashed below the streets of their sleepy town nestled in the slopes of the Mosel valley. As…

The 1970s Cold War Era Home Built 26 Feet Underground

You wouldn’t happen to be in the market for a 1970s underground family home, equipped to live in for up to a year without resurfacing in the event of a nuclear missile strike that wipes out humanity, would ya? Because it just so happens one has just come onto the market. And this piece of real estate…

London has a Subterranean Veggie Farm in an Abandoned WWII Bunker

We’re all trying to switch to local produce these days and for Londoners, it doesn’t get much more local than the 2½ acre farm growing fresh veggies right under their feet. Growing leafy greens and herbs without any natural light 100 feet below the streets of central London in an abandoned air raid shelter is…

Unmasking the Parisian Phantom of the Opera

What if I told you there is a lake under the Paris Opera House, just like in The Phantom of the Opera? Down, down, down, deep underneath the Garnier Opera in a dingy room with a square-shaped hole in the middle, I found it. Resting in the hole was a ladder that seemed to be descending into…