Travel Guide Cazilhac

Close to the river Hérault, the village of Cazilhac has developed around agricultural activity. In the Mediterranean region, known for its periods of chronic drought, water remained for a long time one of the major preoccupations of the inhabitants. To overcome this problem, the elders of Cazilhac found the remedy: no big construction sites or big bridges, but simply a stone canal that stretches over the hillsides and connects the mountains to the valleys. The inhabitants of Cazilhac, the great market gardeners of the region, often had to draw water from the canal. No doubt tired of throwing away their bucket, they devised a system of meuses. This ingenious system of paddle wheels allowed those overlooking the canal to benefit from this fresh and abundant water. It is thanks to water that we still see large mansions, buildings occupied in the 18th and 19th centuries by factories, mills and spinning mills, and finally gardens, flourishing and bearing fruit in often arid lands.