For a wake up call check out the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle complex in the Jardin des Plantes. Go upstairs to La Salle des Espèces Menacées et des Espèces Disparues (The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species). On display in this barely lit space are specimens that have been completely extinguished and others fading from existence. Adding to the eeriness is a still-chiming gold clock once belonging to Marie Antoinette confiscated during the French Revolution. You will exit chilled and very very sad.