I have been looking for free things to do in Paris on my lowly assistante de langue pay, and saw this on coolstuffinparis.com. Since it is really close to where I live (about a 5 minute walk), I wandered over today after work. I can't believe I can walk for a few minutes and set foot in a relic of Roman culture right in the heart of Paris. Now it functions as a park, and apparently even has WiFi according to a sign inside. Walking among the children playing football and climbing the stars around the arena, I cannot believe that gladiators competed here long ago. I noticed a couple of cages built into the stadium being used for storage, and Wikipedia confirmed (yes, I know, reliable sources and all that, blah blah...it's technically "peer-reviewed"...) that they were used to contain animals for the fights. How cool is that? In fact, this site has some amazing history. It was demolished so the materials could be used to help reinforce defenses around Île de la Cité in 240 A.D., and was then used as a cemetery before being filled in and "lost" until sometime in the 1860's when it was rediscovered and VICTOR HUGO himself led preservation efforts. Sometimes the rich history of Paris absolutely dazzles me, and this is one of those times. And did I mention that it's FREE?! Go check it out! read more