January 6th, 2012 The stilt walkers of Landes
 

http://cellar.org/2012/sylvain-dornon.jpg

"In 1891 Sylvain Dornon, a Frenchman, walked from Paris to Moscow in 58 days." On stilts!

"According to the Scientific American, the Mr. Dornon was from a region of France called Landes, which was desribed as an extremely poor region inhabited mostly by shepherds. The roads were non-existent and the ground was marshy and uneven, so the people of Landes developed a unique mode of transportation to allow them to get over the rough ground: they walked on stilts everywhere! Apparently this system of locomotion was so effective that men on stilts could keep up with horses at full trot."

I love the idea of being able to travel fast on foot by such a simple means. Sadly I can't even balance on one leg when standing in my lounge room, let alone on stilts, so it's not likely.

article from "The Illustrated Past" on the Landes stilt walkers

article from "Lous Crabots de Semisens" about them

and another one, including a pic of how you sit down when on stilts

http://cellar.org/2012/seix2.jpg

http://cellar.org/2012/Landes stilts.jpg

http://cellar.org/2012/shepherds stilts.jpg

Can one of you clever bustards tell me how to upload the pics so they actually show, and not just the links to the photos? Or is that something only the Cellar Eldars are allowed to do?

fixed it for you

Only a select few IotD posters have access to the upload page... it's security

If you're willing to post more IotDs like this one, I will share it with you!

I wonder if that's where they got that expression "he looks like he has a stick up his butt."

It's a good thing they don't wear kilts.

Or dressess...

Oh yeah, UT, no pressure there. I'll probably never be able to find something interesting again. Ye olde Cellar curse: get The Knowledge, then lose The Ability. (Sort of like life in general.)

If I can think of another one, I'll come back to you to ask, howzat?

It's good!

I'll believe everything about the stiltz except the BS about how they help in boggy terrain. Sure, sure, put all your weight on a small spot in a bog and see how that works for you.

I suspect the entire point was to see the flock better on the relatively flat terrain with scattered bushes present.


It probably also helped prevent......

:sheep:

I never heard of these stilt people. This is a great IotD! Very interesting.

I want to see video of them walking with that sitting stick. Does it drag a long behind?

Long behind, short behind ... it drags from their behind.

Here is a video of Stilt World with people doing all kinds of crazy dancing on stilts.

(Please tell me how to get the YouTube video to show up in the post. Thanks!)

here is your link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnX7uOd8pmo&feature=youtu.be
click on the youtube icon and insert the text between the "=" signs.
In this case the part in bold.

The "Landes" region is in the southwest part of France. While there are some marshes, the terrain is mostly flat with a lot of pine forests.
The whole place encompasses more than the administrative division it shares its name with. The seaside goes from the "Pointe de Graves" with its highly praised wines down to Biarritz and nice surf spots all along the shore that sports some very high sand dunes.

It's a nearly continuous beach for miles on end with some very secluded places and a balmy weather from April to October.

That looks easy enough, except that when I click on the YouTube icon, I don't get any = signs. I get YOUTUBE in brackets with nothing in between.

Thanks for helping me through this!

You are close...

Sandy, I was already aware of the stilt walkers, and their bizarre adaptation to their geographical conditions. But congratulations on bringing them to a wider audience in a concise and pictoral way.

I often think I have never come across anything IotW worthy.
I have a secret frisson of ownership when someone presents information I have in an interesting way. Doesn't count of course, because mine stays in my head.

Sundae, did you also see it on QI? That show is a treasure trove of trivia!

I rack my brains to find stuff. Sometimes I come up with something great, but can't find any images to go with it, other times a great image with no info, so I fear it may be shopped.

My Dad made us some stilts like that when we were kids. We clomped around the yard in them for a whole summer holiday period. After we went back to school they pretty much got left behind and eventually used for firewood I guess.

I might make some for my boys. I think they'd have fun on them. :)

It would make it easier for them to clean the windows and paint the house.

lol...our house is lowset anyway. I like the way you think though HLJ! :)

Sin boldly!

IMHO, some images are fun to post even if they are shopped. :blush:

OK, now I get it, but I'm confused. That's what I did when I tried to post the stilt video and all that showed was a link. Then, I tried it with a different video and it worked the way it is supposed to.





Oh, this is too weird. When I hit preview, the first video shows up, but not the second. Then, when I scroll the page it flickers in and out. So, when I thought it wasn't showing up, it probably would have when I posted. I just wasn't able to see it in preview for some reason.

Thanks for your patience with me!!!!!

I don't know what everyone else sees, but I see the first video and only see the second video sometimes. Most of the time, the second video is a big blank space.

I would be very careful at that height, especially if you live in windmill country. You know, stilting at windmills and stuff. Don do it!

Oh Monkey, you've still got it.

;)