Carcassonne Cemetery (La Cité). France

If you are visiting Carcassonne, the lovely medieval fortress city in the south of France, don’t miss the opportunity to take an early morning stroll through this historic graveyard. What makes it truly unique is its location immediately outside the walls of La Cité (castle-fortress).  Inside La Cité it’s hard to find any place or space that  feels even remotely  authentic, given the hundreds of tourists traipsing back and forth among snack bars, restaurants and souvenir shops.  A visit to the cemetery makes up for it.

The discreet entrance to this stone-walled cemetery is located right behind the old carousel which is a stone’s throw from the main entrance to the fortress. Easy to locate, easy access and not at all popular with the tourists; the morning we visited Le Cimetiere, it was practically empty except for one groundskeeper, an elderly French lady who greeted me with Bonjour madame and two young fellows, who looked like American college students, probably there for the same reason as we were. The morning we visited was beautiful, crisp and sunny, blue skies above and that gorgeous backdrop of medieval towers and stone walls.

Le Cimetiere de La Cité is very manageable. Not especially large, and neatly laid out in a few main lanes, you can see most of it in a relaxed manner in 60-90 minutes. This gives you plenty of time to stop and read the names and dates (mid-1800’s up to today) on the above-the-ground tombs,  have a look at the many photographs of its occupants, and stop from time to time to appreciate the beautiful views in all directions. As you look across the cemetery towards the castle, the graveyard seems to melt into the walls and towers of La Cité. If you look down the lanes toward the entrance, you can see the lovely Carcassonne countryside.

The graves in this French cemetery are not very different from the country cemeteries in Spain that I’ve visited over the years. Except perhaps for the practice of placing stand-up, rectangular, ceramic-stone plaques on top of the long tombstones as “souvenirs” to lost loved ones. A notre ami, a mon papa chéri, a ma grand-mere, a notre fils .... some of the graves had up to 30 of these plaques. They are decorated with flowers, birds, virgins and/or sculpted images of the loved one's profession, favourite sport or hobby while in this life. As you walk through, you can appreciate if the person had been a farmer, a hunter, a rugby player, etc during his/her lifetime. As far as photographs go, there are many. There are some lovely ones of small children in their first communion dress from the early 1900's and a few of young men and women who died in their teens or young adulthood which leave you feeling very solemn.

 What you won’t see in Le Cimetiere is much funerary art or statues. Except for a few angels here and there, most of the grave markers are crucifixes (many crucifixes in fact) and the souvenir plaques. And just a few of the narrow stone family vaults so common in the large city cemeteries of Paris.

Last tip for you photographers: take advantage of La Cité on a clear summer night to photograph the shadows and silhouettes of its cemetery against the fortress walls. Awesome.