Once an indispensable part of any gentleman’s daily wardrobe, walking sticks are no longer particularly fashionable. They are still, however, useful, and the artisan fabricant de cannes uses skill to combine utility with beauty.

Canes are used by walkers, particularly in the hills, by the elderly, those with a disability and also as weapons in sport.

Every major town would have had at least one fabricant de cannes, but today only a handful of walking stick-makers remain in business and all are in mountainous regions.

Cannes Fayet in Thiers, Auvergne has been making canes by hand for ...