Exclusive tour of the Paris Archaeological Hub’s reserves for Archaeology Days 2026

For Archaeology Days 2026, head to Paris’s 18th arrondissement, where the City of Paris Archaeology Center opens the doors to a place rarely accessible: its storerooms, discreet guardians of the capital’s buried memory.

History beneath the paving stones! For the European Archaeology Days, which this year will take place over the weekend of June 12–14, 2026, Paris invites the curious to discover the capital in a new light: not only through its monuments, façades and grand boulevards, but through the subtler traces that lie under our feet. This annual event shines a spotlight on archaeology with an educational programme. The aim? To reveal to all audiences the workings behind research, excavations and the safeguarding of heritage.

In the 18th arrondissement, the Paris City Archaeology Hub offers an extraordinary tour of its storerooms! Attached to the Department of the History of Architecture and Archaeology of Paris, this municipal service is tasked with cataloguing, studying, conserving and bringing to light the capital’s archaeological heritage. It plays a key role especially around preventive excavations linked to Parisian construction projects, and then supports the long process of analyzing the objects uncovered.

Once the ruins are unearthed, a new journey begins: sorting, identifying, restoring, documenting, and storing. The Parisian archaeological reserves, based in the 18th arrondissement, span about 800 m² and safeguard thousands of objects, organized by material: stone, ceramics, bone, metal, glass… Each fragment can tell a fragment of Lutetia, medieval Paris, or the modern capital.

The 2026 Archaeology Days program at the City of Paris Archaeology Center

Guided tours of the reserves of the Paris Archaeological Pole
Friday, June 12, 2026 — 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Did you know? The City of Paris preserves the full set of remains unearthed by its municipal archaeologists since the 1950s. Hundreds of thousands of pottery shards, animal bones, metal, glass, or terracotta artifacts, lithic remains, and organic traces are stored in our reserves to be studied by researchers or loaned to museums.

On the occasion of European Archaeology Days, the Archaeological Center opens the doors to its repository for four one-hour guided tours, by registration (link to come).

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