Sometimes the best travel inspiration arrives as a scattered list, and a recent roundup from Messy Nessy Chic delivers a grab-bag of ideas worth acting on — from Istanbul to Bordeaux to rural South Africa.

The standout for many will be the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. Novelist Orhan Pamuk dreamed up the museum and his novel of the same name at the same time in the 1990s; the book appeared in 2008, the museum followed in 2012. It's a small institution built from everyday objects that appear in the story — a fictional collection that doubles as a portrait of everyday Istanbul life in the second half of the twentieth century. Fiction made physical, and well worth a detour the next time you're in Turkey's largest city. If a trip isn't on the cards, the museum offers a virtual visit online.

For runners with a sense of humour, France's Marathon du Médoc is back on 5 September. The course threads through Bordeaux's vineyards and châteaux, and instead of the usual energy gels, aid stations pour local wine and serve oysters, cheese and foie gras. Fancy dress is traditional. It's less a race than a very long, very boozy picnic — which is exactly the point.

Also in France: a rare look under the Palace of Versailles, where the vast reservoirs beneath the water parterre are drained once a year for maintenance ahead of the famous fountain shows. And for buyers with deep pockets, a restored Art Nouveau apartment in Castel Béranger — one of Hector Guimard's landmark Paris buildings — is listed with Sotheby's for €1,198,000. It's a modest 635 square feet, but you're paying for the address and the architecture.

Further afield, there's the Sunland Baobab in South Africa's Limpopo Province, one of the largest and oldest baobabs anywhere. Its trunk is so enormous that a bar was installed inside it back in 1933, on the Van Heerden family's farm. Yes, you can order a drink inside a tree.

Rounding out the list: the story of San Francisco's Wayne Manor, a 1966 nightclub decked out like the Batcave after the owner's eleven-year-old son suggested a Batman theme; a vintage 1950s Huffy Radio Bike; a 1948 bicycle pageant from the Life archives; and a charming Paris-fuelled film by Jethro Massey that won a prize at Venice despite being rejected by Cannes — and still can't find distribution.

Why does this matter for travellers? Because these are the kind of detours that make a trip memorable: a wine-soaked marathon, a museum you'll talk about for years, a pub in a tree that sounds made up. None of them require much planning — just a calendar and a bit of curiosity. Anyone can visit the big sights; the stories come from the odd corners.