Le Villaret: Causse Hamlet

Wind-swept short-grass prairies, flocks of sheep, limestone architecture and nature all around you: Le Villaret is representative of the typical Causse hamlets of this Mediterranean agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape, which was awarded Unesco World Heritage status in 2011. The limestone architecture blending into the landscape is a remarkable element of this hamlet. A well-preserved complex of several typical elements has been carefully restored: bread oven, dry-stone walls surrounding the garden, stone farmhouse, threshing-floor, etc. Here, everything is made of stone, from the cistern for collecting rain water to the houses' vaulted ceilings which support the roofs (also built from limestone). The hamlet bears witness to the agro-pastoralism that has been practised on the Causse Méjean since the Neolithic. Agro-pastoralism, which combines sedentary or transhumant livestock farming with farming to produce winter fodder or cereals, is the main activity on these high plateaux.