c. 1936
Image: Apic/Getty Images
The Landes region of southwestern France was for much of its history impoverished, with few roads and vast swaths of marshy and treacherous terrain. To navigate the soft and unsteady heathlands, shepherds developed a unique adaptation — they traveled on stilts.
Locally referred to as tchangues, or “big legs,” the five-foot wooden stilts were strapped to a person’s legs and supplemented with a long staff which a shepherd used to direct his flock and as a support for resting. Perched comfortably atop this tripod configuration, a shepherd was afforded an elevated view to keep track of his sheep and watch for wolves. Read more…
