Jean François Gravelet-Blondin, French tight-rope walker and acrobat, was born at St Omer, France. His real name was Jean-François Gravelet, and was known also by the names Charles Blondin or Jean-François Blondin, or more simply “The Great Blondin”. When five years old he was sent to the École de Gymnase at Lyon and, after six months training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as "The Little Wonder". Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Charles Blondin. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Blondin