The List Circuit – The Director’s Cut…

I returned to the walled city the next day. The little chapel at the foot of the bridge is open today. It’s the Chapel of Notre Dame de la Sante, started in 1497 and funded by private donation. It was enlarged during the 18th century and the marble Madonna was added to the front. It became residential housing during the French Revolution before the Church bought it back from the State and restored it in the mid-19th century.

I disregard the dirt path that I took yesterday and stick to the less ardous sidewalk. The graveyard that was closed yesterday is also open today. Most of the graves look to date to the mid 1800s. Many of the flowers on the graves are ceramic. The caged grave in the last photo belongs to an infant, the sign at the base of the grave says it has been abandoned.

I cross the drawbridge to the walled city, nearly dropping my phone through the slats in the bridge in the process :/

I had walked the ramparts yesterday; today I walk the path between the two walls which is called the List Circuit. It will take me around the city gain but is mostly level and an easier walk, as long as I pay attention to the cobblestones.

Carcasso had been a Roman settlement since the 1st century BC. In Roman fashion, the wall had four entries at the compass points, and was constructed from stone, leveled with slabs of red brick. I look for the leveling bricks between the stones which mark the Roman remains of the the inner wall, which you can see in the lower left of the center photo below. The last photo here is a close-up example of that masonry technique that I found in a building just after crossing the bridge into town.

The walk is super picturesque, and I join with others on this path in stopping frequently to get the perfect shot, and to stand back while others get their perfect shots as well.

I discover parking on the backside of the wall, I presume for the people who work here. There’s also a pay-to-park lot across the street that people can use when they are attending concerts in the amphitheater.

As I start back across the drawbridge and into the city, a woman rushes up to me, and thinking I am in period costume, asks in both English and French, if I am on my way to work. “No, this is just how I normally dress.” She compliments me on my style and says she’s visiting from New Brunswick. I tell her I am also visiting, and give her tips of things to see. And as I am leaving, I find another fashionista to take my photo, to document the day I was mistaken for a resident of Carcassonne.