The People
Hundreds of years ago, the Landes was not as it is today. There were very large and
flat expanses with high brushwoods and marshes.
For the shepherds to watch over their flocks, they had to go on stilts (around 1.40m to
1.50m high) called "Echasses". (The name for the men using these stilts are
"Echassiers".)
To attach the stilts to their legs, they have leather belts and to prevent the belts
rubbing, they had gaiters "garnaches", these they knitted themselves when they
were watching over their sheep.
They wore a sheep skin vest ("prisse") and as they had to make them themselves,
they had very nice ones.
To complete the uniform, they wore a black beret winter & summer.
They also carried a "cuyoun" which is the ancestor of the Thermos flask. A dryed
marrow in which they kept their beverages either cold or warm.
Finally they had a long stave (pine poll), which was essential for the
"échassier", because he had to lean on something to keep his stability during
long periods on his feet/stilts. It was also very useful to help him mount and dismount
the stilts with only the strength of his arms, as generally he was by himself.
Stilts were also used by the postmen to travel through the area a lot quicker than by
feet.The stilts were abandonned for a few years and then found utility again during the
"Jacquerie" when the Landes was inundated with wolves, because the farmers were
unarmed. With the stilts they could see the wolf packs arriving and stop them killing
their flocks.
The Landaise young girls wore light coloured clothes until she was married and then she
had to wear black.
The Area
As originally stated the Landes was a marshy shrubland for hundreds of years, flooding
from time to time when a high Atlantic tide would sweep accross the flat plains or the
Adour river would burst its banks with heavy rain or a fast snow melt down in the Pyrenees
mountains, where the river starts its flow.
The Landaise folk and successive Regional & Country Governments had to find an answer
to stop the floods and marshy existance of the Landes Departement, as it covered a vast
area.
Firstly, conditions improved when the River Adour was re-routed (originally it flowed to
towards Vieux Boucau and then onto Capbreton) from Dax to turn towards Peyrehorade and on
to Bayonne after joining the Gaves de Pau and Oloron through higher ground in the late
16th & early 17th Centuries.
Secondly, much later on in the early to mid 19th Century, the order was given to construct
the sand dunes along the coastal beaches to protect the land from the sea and these were
planted with a creeping grass which was to hold the dunes together and to stop them from
blowing away with a strong Atlantic (Bay of Biscay) wind.
Finally the Landes was planted with Pine-Trees (because an adult pine-tree drinks 200
liters of water each day). That's how the Landes was finally drained. |
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