Thézan, is one of a group of villages called circulades, these are said to owe their origins to Roman times, as there is evidence of the circular shape being depicted in early manuscripts, but most were built between the 10th and 12th Centuries.

These villages are mainly found in Herault although there are a few in the Gard and Aude areas and they are often clustered around larger towns like Beziers in our case.

Although their history goes back so far their name, the circulade, was only invented in 1992.
It was a Polish urban architect called Pawlowski who noted these unique village structures at that time and coined the phrase.
Although they look similar on ground level to the Bastide village, common in the Lot and Dordogne, from the air their unique circular defensive structure is evident.

Thézan from Google Earth.

It was of course a defensive design.
The circle, having no corners is the easiest shape to defend
and the interior whorls of houses, usually circling the church
or, less usually the castle made it extremely difficult to capture.

The legacy of these defensive villages gives a whole structure of life which survives to today.
In Ireland the farmer usually built his farmhouse in the centre of his farm, and they lived, and still live rather lonely existences separated from each other from acres of fields.
The French farmer, more often a Vigneron, tended his vines and maybe built a hut to shelter in, some distance from the village but came back there at night for shelter, sleep and company.
From the obvious indications about my house in Thézan it was originally built as a Maison de Vignerons.
This is evident from the bootscrapers by the front door and even more obviously from my newly discovered Oxen stall by the back entrance.
This must have led to a much more social existence than the Irish one of distanced farms and is of course particularly relevant today.
On the radio this morning there is much talk of how the breathalyser is destroying Irish rural life.
The pub in Ireland is the only social centre for these disparate farmers and, with the advent of stricter drink driving laws, this meeting point is gradually disappearing.
I wonder if it is the ease which the French farmer can socialise on neutral ground, outside of the pub or café which leads to so much less drunkenness being evident in France than in Ireland?