Here you won't find any wooden chalets. The rarity of wood as well as some spectacular fires in the past centuries have discouraged the local population from building with wood. Traditional architecture in the La Meije area is exclusively stone. Blocks of tuff (a volcanic rock) or shale are sealed together with an earth-based mortar. Rooftops are two-sided and covered with slate or flagstones, here again for fire protection. Houses are built on the natural rock foundation and set into the hillside in a cascading terrace formation. Numerous traditional passageways called "trabuc" link the houses together to create a tight network that visitors often lose themselves in.

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