Fosse - A troglodyte village

This site consists of many rooms cut into the soft volcanic tufa. It's rooms are grouped around a few central open areas shown here. It is becoming popular in France for people to live in ancient dwellings at sites like this in order to preserve their heritage. The current site was inhabited until 1969.

(Click on each photo to get the full-sized image)

This is the first "courtyard". One can see numerous rooms that are cut into the bare rock.

View slightly to the right of the first photo.

Continuing clockwise are seen numerous additional rooms.

One can see from the farm tools that this site was occupied until very recently.

Through a short passageway one passes into another courtyard lined with rooms. The living area room designs are fairly standardized with a window adjacent to each doorway. The oven is usually adjacent to the window so that smoke will be carried to the outside. From the stone blocks seen here enclosing the rooms it is clear that this part of the village was recently occupied.