Musée de l'Œuvre Notre Dame

Lonely Planet review

Occupying a group of magnificent 14th- and 16th-century buildings, the renowned Musée de l'Œuvre Notre Dame houses one of Europe's premier collections of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance sculptures (including many originals from the cathedral), 15th-century paintings and stained glass. Christ de Wissembourg (c 1060; Room Two) is the oldest work of stained glass in France. The celebrated figures of a blindfolded and downcast Synagogue (representing Judaism) and a serenely victorious Église (the Church), which date from approximately 1230 and once flanked the southern entrance to the cathedral (the statues there now are copies), are in Room Seven.

Hollywood gore seems pretty milquetoasty compared to what they came up with back when Hell really was hell. Les Amants Trépassés (the Deceased Lovers; Room 23), painted in 1470, shows a remarkably ugly couple being punished for their illicit lust: both of their entrails are being devoured by dragon-headed snakes while a toad feasts on her pudenda. If this work isn't enough to scare you into a life of chastity nothing will!