Typically Mediterranean, the scenery stretches from the sea to the plain, including scrubland, roads and squares planted with plane trees, pine woods, olive trees, vineyards of course, but also basalt flows, the river HĂ©rault, ponds, the Canal du Midi...
Art & History - Scenery
THE PAYS DE PEZENAS : A RICH VARIETY OF LANDSCAPES
THE PLAIN OF THE HERAULT RIVER
The HĂ©rault, a 150km long river, has 10 tributaries, crosses 3 geological entities and accommodates a very varied aquatic fauna.
The river is submitted to the variations of the Mediterranean climate. The rain can transform in a few minutes streams in torrents that merge into the river and cause important floods.
The river was used for irrigation, the flour-milling industry (many water-mills were built on the river in the Middle Ages) and the mining of granulates.
Up to the beginning of the 19th century, the plain was dedicated to the cultivation of grains and fruit trees. In the middle of the 19th century, vine replaced progressively all the other cultivations.
THE SCRUBLANDS
They are characterized by a limestone fractured relief. The very rich palette of colors can be enjoyed in the scrublands of Aumes and Saint Pons de Mauchiens.
They are the home of two types of vegetation: shrubland with rockroses, shrub oaks, brooms, pistachio trees, and herbaceous such as lavender and rosemary. 
THE BASALT FLOW OF THE BAUMES VOLCANO
Its vegetation looks like scrubland. This plateau was born from the erosion of soft stones building the bed of former tributaries of the HĂ©rault and Peyne rivers, into which the lava flow of the volcano had rushed. This soil, quite hard to cultivate, was dedicated to pasture.
Today, there is only one herd and the shrubland is gaining over the herbaceous. The limestone plateau becomes a holm oak forest. It is the home of many shepherds' shelters, basalt small walls and lime-kilns.
Parcours-spectacle en 5 salles, qui vous immergera dans l'ambiance du XVIIe siècle à la découverte du tourbillon de la vie de Molière
