Have you ever visited a museum with a child on your arms? Or felt a reluctance among grandparents to chore Wednesday for cultural outings? So you are going to love the
Loafer. This strange device mounted on four wheels is in fact a “3 in 1”. “It can be used as a walker, stroller, armchair”, summarizes Thérèse Donnet, the inventor with her designer brother Yves Subarroque, of this “tool” intended to facilitate strolls in cultural places in particular, and establishments receiving support. general public.
This funny idea does not come out of nowhere. Thérèse Donnet worked for a long time in maintaining autonomy. She knows by heart “the strategies of avoidance” that arouse the walkers, the umbrella which serves as a cane to the abandonment of the exits. “We always provide a medical or stigmatizing response to fragile people,” she emphasizes. Hence the Flâneuse, easy to use, requiring no maintenance and which does not point the finger at anyone. “It meets all the needs of visitors whether you are young, old, or well and simply tired”. With its seats, at child height on one side, and adult on the other, its clever storage space, it can also serve as a bag rest or refuge to leave the standing position during the presentation. ‘a guide.
“Funny and playful side”
From inspiration to the final concept, sometimes groping around, the start-up E-Hé (for errare humanum est, a “code name” that has stuck) took three years to invent the Flâneuse. Thanks to an industrial partnership with a cycle factory in the Hautes-Pyrénées, it is ready to fulfill its first orders by the end of the year. Because she took care to test the Flâneuse in real conditions. Mini-fleets have landed this summer in Toulouse at the Couvent des Jacobins, the Médiathèque or the Cité de l’Espace.
“On our side, the results have been very positive”, enthuses Noemi Schosmann, in charge of accessibility in the huge science park which until then only offered “wheelchairs which immediately refer to a handicap and which visitors just embarrassed to move do not dare to take ”. After a moment of hesitation, due to the arrangement of the machines in the reception hall, families especially, attracted by “its funny and playful side”, adopted the Flâneuse. “And the reception staff felt comfortable offering them or giving demonstrations,” adds Noemi Schosmann.
Also convinced, Toulouse Métropole has placed an order for 60 Flâneuses – 6 lots of 10 – and is awaiting delivery by the end of the year. She is also studying the possibility of putting them at the entrance to a less cultural but just as essential place: the funeral directors.