To Strasbourg, in search of a tale from the crypt

The crypt at Strasbourg Cathedral isn't how I'd imagined it. I'd expected something richly atmospheric, sepulchral, a space stuffed with the accumulated religious ephemera of more than eight centuries.

It's actually quite tidy; almost cozy, in fact. There are simple wooden chairs in neat rows, a humble altar with a beautiful, blue-and-green, stained-glass window above it, an elegant wooden statue of the Virgin of Strasbourg (Mary, arms stretched, with Jesus, clutching a fleur-de-lis, on her lap), and a stone memorial etched with the names of the archbishops buried under the cathedral's main altar.