What is the oldest structure in Paris?

Question

What is the oldest structure in Paris?

Answer 1

Probably the Roman structures like Arenes de Lutece, Eglise St. Germain or the Cluny Roman Baths.  Notre Dame Cathedral was started in 1163.

Answer 2

That depends on what you mean by structure and whether you mean one that is still intact in whole or in part.

The oldest structure from the point of view of something that is man made might well be the rue St. Jacques which is the old Roman road into Paris. There are also bits and pieces of the old Roman wall which have been incorparted into various buildings on the Latin quarter around the rue St. Jacques.

For something slightly more substantial there are the vestiges of what was probably a Gallo-Roman patrician’s home you can visit in the Archaeological Crypt Museum beneath the esplanade in front of Notre Dame Cathedral or, as has already been mentioned the ruins of the Roman arena. Whether the house or the Arena is older is not precisely known.

What’s left of the ground floor (since several times revamped) of 4 rue de la Colombe on Ile de la Cité, was originally built in the early 1200s.

According to Jacques Hillairet’s 1963 Dictionnaire Historique des Rues de Paris, the oldest entire house is at 3 rue Volta.

Other sources say that the building constructed for Nicolas Flamel's at 51 rue de Montmorency built in 1407 is the oldest.