The Clogs

Appearing as early as Antiquity and carved from a single piece of wood, clogs were the quintessential footwear of peasants. They spread during the Middle Ages, and their use continued until the 20th century, when rubber boots appeared. In his “Ballade de la grosse Margot” (1461), the poet François Villon used the word sabot to rhyme with jambot (a child laborer), and Vincent van Gogh depicted a heavy pair in his 1888 painting “A Pair of Leather Clogs” or “Still Life: Wooden Shoes”. Carved from a 35-meter sequoia, the largest clog in the world measures 3.80 meters in length, weighs 2.5 tons, and has been on display in Gouloux (Nièvre) since it was certified by the Guinness Book of Records in 1989.