  Photonic lattices - arrays of optical waveguides - are powerful platforms for
simulating a range of phenomena, including topological phases. While probing
dynamics is possible in these systems, by reinterpreting the propagation
direction as "time," accessing long timescales constitutes a severe
experimental challenge. Here, we overcome this limitation by placing the
photonic lattice in a cavity, which allows the optical state to evolve through
the lattice multiple times. The accompanying detection method, which exploits a
multi-pixel single-photon detector array, offers quasi-real time-resolved
measurements after each round trip. We apply the state-recycling scheme to
intriguing photonic lattices emulating Dirac fermions and Floquet topological
phases. In this new platform, we also realise a synthetic pulsed electric
field, which can be used to drive transport within photonic lattices. This work
opens a new route towards the detection of long timescale effects in engineered
photonic lattices and the realization of hybrid analogue-digital simulators.
