Picture a shepherd watching over his flock while standing nearly 6 feet tall on wooden stilts, knitting woolen socks as his sheep graze below. This wasn't performance art—it was everyday life in the Landes region of southwestern France from the 1700s until the 1930s.

The vast, flat marshlands of Landes presented a serious transportation problem. After rainfall, the terrain transformed into an impassable swamp with no roads. Shepherds didn't invent stilts, but they perfected their use in ways that turned a walking aid into a lifestyle.

The 'Big Legs' Solution

Locals called them tchangues or "big legs"—wooden stilts about 5 feet tall, strapped to the legs with leather ties and paired with a long staff. This tripod configuration gave shepherds three key advantages: an elevated view to spot distant sheep and predatory wolves, the ability to traverse soft, marshy ground without sinking, and an extended stride that allegedly let them move as fast as a horse at full trot.

The stilts were typically handcrafted from pine or ash, and shepherds learned to use them from childhood. Historical accounts describe extraordinary feats of skill:

Picking up pebbles from the ground while elevated
Simulating falls and recovering instantly
Running on just one stilt
Keeping pace with trotting horses

Knitting on High

Standing 5 feet up with nothing but sheep to watch for hours gets boring. So shepherds multitasked, knitting their own woolen socks while perched on their stilts. They also wore long sheepskin coats called prisses, made from two sewn-together skins.

When Napoleon's wife Josephine visited Landes in 1808, she received quite the welcome: a convoy of stilt-walking shepherds accompanied her carriage into town, moving effortlessly alongside her horses.

Why the Practice Disappeared

Stilt-walking shepherds gradually vanished starting in the mid-1800s. Large-scale pine plantations systematically replaced the marshlands, draining the wetlands and ending the region's sheep herding tradition. By the 1930s, the last working stilt shepherds had hung up their tchangues.

Today, the art survives only in folk festivals, parades, and historical reenactments—a reminder of when an entire community adapted to their impossible landscape by simply rising above it.

Related Tags