BRICE ESCARGUEL
Two silhouettes under a lit arch, Carcassonne's Cité at night
← PhotographyNarbonne and Carcassonne, Aude, France · 2022 · 15 photographs

Back to origins — Narbonne, Carcassonne

A week in the Aude, from Gothic vaults to the Milky Way — summer 2022.

A week in the Aude, summer 2022. In Narbonne I look up: the cathedral vaults, the stained glass, pillars that climb very high. At the Narbo Via museum, the Roman town is stored on shelves, block by block. A few marble faces are still looking. In Carcassonne, the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire late in the day. At night the Cité empties out. What's left is stone lit orange, two silhouettes under an arch, a man sitting in a doorway. To finish, a night in a wooden trailer, under the Milky Way. Two thousand years of stone, and it's still the light that shapes it.

Place
Narbonne and Carcassonne, Aude, France
Light
Stained glass and dim naves by day. The Cité's orange floodlights at night. A starry sky.
Camera
Fujifilm X-T4 · XF 8-16mm f/2.8, Sigma 16mm f/1.4, XF 16-55mm f/2.8
Credits
Photographs and text: Brice Escarguel
Gothic vault and stained glass, seen from below
Nave and choir of a Gothic cathedral, wooden stalls
Rib vaults and rose windows, looking straight up
Roman stelae and inscriptions stored on shelves
Roman sculpted heads on plinths
Gothic choir and tall stained-glass windowsA lit rampart and cobbled lane at night
Vault ribs and a rose window, from below
Passers-by under a pointed gateway at the end of a dark passageA figure in a lit doorway, cobbles in the foreground
A lit pointed gate in the ramparts at night
The top of a lit tower behind the battlements
A round tower framed by a stone beam at night
The Milky Way above a hill and a few houses