The stunning beauty of the Notre Dame cathedral makes it hard to notice other things in the surrounding area - and, to be perfectly honest, when we descended into the Crypte Archéologique, I thought it was a glorified metro stop. As it turns out, though, it's a nifty little museum that holds all sorts of artifacts from as early as Roman times, back when Paris was called Lutece, or Lutecia.

In addition to artifacts owned by people that lived in the city long ago, the museum also featured tons of archeological remains from the villages. Here are a few images!

As you can probably tell, the ruins include all sorts of structures.

Walls, perhaps...

Some sort of entryway, I suppose?

I remember one part of the museum involved the remains of a cathedral. I don't exactly remember if that's what's in this picture, but still!

Again, I can't remember exactly what was in this picture, but the museum also contained a medieval hospital. Imagine!

Much of the architecture shows all sorts of things about the ancient culture, especially regarding the fact that life revolved around the river Seine. Some of the ruins include ramparts, giant walls that surrounded the river. It was both haunting and fascinating to wander around and see the remnants of life in the past. I also got to exercise my somewhat inadequate French skills to read the information about the exhibits, which featured quite a bit of obscure vocabulary. It was an incredible reminder of how long the city has been around!

Chris and me in front of the ruins!