Photos

Carcassonne woke up in the morning of the 26th of december with this unusual white blanket, as a Christmas gift.

On the west of the Cité (the castle), the entrance is made by the ancient barbican, built by the king Saint-Louis when he consolidated the castle after the passage of the Black Prince.
The barbican (barbacane in french) is a defence system, out of the walls but linked to a door by its own fortified walls. If it was taken by the attackers, they where under the fire of the arrows.

When the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) began the big rebuilding work of the ruined castle, the barbican has disappeared. On its site, he built the Saint-Gimer church (1854-1859), of gothic inspiration.
It became the place of worship of the suburb that has grown up between the Cité and the Aude river. This area is now called Barbacane.

I took this photo from the west walls of the Cité ; on the foreground we can see the Saint-Gimer church and the Barbacane area and in the background we can see the lower-town (the actual centre of town). on the right, the tower of the Saint-Viencent church.