"I hope you're not trying to trick me with a fake clockwork orange, Peasant, because April Fool finished at midday!"

#PoissonDAvril #AprilFool #Asstodon #LePlessisRobinson

@arcadiagt5 @prk

I object. As an enthusiastic contributor to '"this crap" I would point out that it officially finishes at midday, so worldwide I think this prolly works out at 36 hours not 48. 🤔

#PoissonDAvril #April1st #AprilFool #LePlessisRobinson

Live from a suburb in the south-west of Paris: a scene from today's municipal commemorations of the Accidental Donkeys of #LePlessisRobinson

#Asstodon #ÂnesDeFrance #PoissonDAvril #Paris

"The Accidental Donkeys of Le Plessis-Robinson" is also available as a blog post.

https://equusasinus.net/2023/04/01/the-accidental-donkeys-of-le-plessis-robinson/

#Asstodon #ÂnesDeFrance #LePlessisRobinson

By 1913, we see for the first time in the tradition a woman in a *portrait de la chute d'un âne* For #LePlessisRobinson, it is the end of the world they knew.

Sadly, on the first day of April 1914 the Town Council banned the *chutes des ânes* as World War 1 was due to start in August; but every year on April 1st people remember their tradition with a special meal of #PoissonDAvril: fresh water cod fished from the river Seine eaten with burnt pommes frites.

#ÂnesDeFrance #AprilFool
➡️ (10/10)

We now enter the period of colour-tinted postcards: a man fallen from a donkey wearing a blue suit. The traditional leg-caught-in-the-donkey pose has now been subtly changed: the viewer must make a leap of imagination to suppose that the man has fallen from a donkey.

A small crowd of #LePlessisRobinson onlookers are smiling: the earlier non-judgemental attitudes towards men performing *la chute d'un âne* have changed, and they have become *un objet de ridicule.*

#Asstodon

⬇️ (9/10)

In this later postcard we see the development of the #LePlessisRobinson tradition in a much more dramatic form, as a man in a hat lies fallen in the road alongside his donkey, observed by a hysterical woman with her hands raised in the air, suggesting she fears he is dead.

This impression is slightly spoiled by the smiles of the boy with the broom. A man holds onto the donkey’s tail, which is unwise at the best of times and particularly when your shoes are newly cleaned.

#Asstodon

⬇️ (8/10)

In this photograph we see a bride in a white wedding-gown on a donkey, watching the bridegroom falling face-forward off his donkey, which we have already observed is not within the normal #LePlessisRobinson rules.

(Note classic 'contraposto' positioning of left hand on ground while left knee is bent and left foot poised in mid-air.)

The bystanders are dismayed, as the referee - a man in a bowler hat - raises his arms to declare this *portrait de la chute* null and void.

#Asstodon

⬇️ (6/10)

Here we see a man in a bowler hat falling face-forward from his donkey onto a softer grassed surface than we normally see in #LePlessisRobinson’s main street.

The face-forward *chute d'un âne* was a development of this art form around 1907 and this man has gone to practise out of sight in the Fôret de Plessis-Robinson in order to avoid plagiarism.

New poses for the popular postcards were highly prized and spies were everywhere, so he has two lookouts posted.

#Asstodon

⬇️ (5/10)

Observe the pose of the *portrait de la chute d'un âne* in #LePlessisRobinson in these early years of the new century (1900-1913) involves lying in the road with one foot extended, caught in the donkey’s stirrups or harness. Bearing in mind the posed nature of the photographs, this would not present any actual danger or risk of physical injury.

Unless, of course, some malicious bystander frightened the donkey and it dragged the poser by his foot along the road at speed.

#Asstodon

⬇️ (4/10)

In the symbiotic relationship between tree-house wine drinking, donkey transport and early photography, the problem was that shutter speeds were too slow to capture the tipsy riders falling off their donkeys, so this had to be staged as a still shot, and the citizens of #LePlessisRobinson developed the art of the posed *portrait de la chute d'un âne*, a popular subject for postcards sold to the clientele from central Paris who came for the cheap wine in the tree houses.

#Asstodon

⬇️ (3/10)

Investigations by #Asstodon have revealed the history of this tradition and the photographic evolution of the *falling-off-a-donkey portrait* (or *portrait de la chute d'un âne*) in #LePlessisRobinson.

We identified 3 main factors:

1. Cheap wine in the tree-house ‘guinguettes’ (see postcard) of Plessis-Robinson, as alcohol taxes were lower in the suburbs of Paris;

2. The sudden change in altitude from tree-house wine bar to riding a donkey home;

3. A surge in amateur photography.

⬇️ (2/10)

#Asstodon Special:
The Accidental Donkeys of #LePlessisRobinson

In a Paris suburb 1901-1914 the ‘Belle Epoque’, more people fell off donkeys than anywhere else.
‘Plessis’ is a village enclosed by a fence. ‘Robinson’ is from the tree house in ‘The Swiss Family Robinson,’ as the town’s wine bars were all in tree houses.
Drinkers rode home on donkeys but often fell off. The new art of photography led to the citizens being pictured on postcards falling off their donkeys.

#AnesDeFrance
⬇️ (1/10)