Cartes du Tour
Cartes du Tour
by Paul Fournel
“The maps of the Tour tell of the evolution and challenges of the most prestigious bike race in the world. They are always similar and always different. They trace the history of a country which evolves, which reveals itself, which opens itself up to its neighbours and which carves out Europe before Europe. A country which shows its beauty and its charms. Each route is a picnic spot of several thousands of kilometres for millions of supporters, who wouldn't miss their summer meeting with the peloton for the world.”
– Paul Fournel
The featured maps are varied in style and detail and from an extensive archive specially collected and curated. The overall impact is not just a graphic history of the Tour but with the combination of incisive writing the book weaves a impression of how the Tour has developed during those magical three weeks in July. As the maps vary in quality and size, some years feature more strongly than others, the better quality and more significant ones in a fold-out format.
Cartes du Tour has a map for all the 105 editions (as of 2018) and ASO, the Tour’s owners, have allowed us permission and access to their archive of road books, maps and associated resources in order to cover-off every edition since it’s start in 1903.
“The maps included in the book are by a variety of different cartographers, illustrators and designers, meaning that the collection is as much a graphic history of map design as it is a history of the race”
“Beautifully produced and full of food for thought”
“It’s just really nice to look at…”
“There are a lot of books about the Tour de France out there already, and every year more appear. Many of them cover the same ground, but occasionally you come across a different proposition that has been well executed: Cartes du Tour is one such success, and it presents an alternative perspective of le Tour. I doubt that you will find a more comprehensive gathering of these historical documents anywhere else”
“Many books of this size concerning the Tour de France seem only to occupy the moment created by those three weeks in July. I think it more than likely that Cartes du Tour will have a considerably longer lifespan”
“This book rewards browsers. The maps are a graphics delight, ranging from rather simple efforts in the early days to colourful views of more recent years. It is a beautifully produced book that takes a unique approach to telling the story of the Tour by using contemporary maps covering each year from 1903 until 2018”
“A sumptuous ‘cartographical’ history of the Tour de France”
“Cartes du Tour started with a small personal collection from the various newspapers and magazines that would publish a map ahead of the Tour de France. Rapha CEO Simon Mottram has always had Tour maps lying around his office and I have a big collection of them as they were always inserted into magazines. So we got talking about the potential of the project and it snowballed from there, ASO – the tour’s organiser – had to be brought in to give its approval and it also had its own collection, then it was about a year of scouring eBay, magazine shops, flea markets, historical archives and the photo agencies to fill in all the blanks.”
“It’s becoming a lost art though, because in the new age of infographics and computer generated maps, I think much of the craft and beauty of cartography has all but disappeared, we’d love a few more variations on the theme of the tour routes each year, it would be brilliant to have had some influence on rekindling the art of the map.”
– Guy Andrews, Bluetrain
Special Edition
Special Edition
About the author
Paul Fournel is a French writer and author who lives in Paris. For a long time he was an editor (with Ramsay and Seghers among others). He has been president of the French writers’ association Société des gens de lettres. He has managed the Alliance Française in San Francisco. He has been a cultural attaché in Cairo and in London. He is now a full time writer, and a cyclist for the rest of the day. His third full time occupation is as president of French writing group Oulipo.
Among his works, the novels Un homme regarde une femme, Foraine, Chamboula; the novellas Les petites filles respirent le même air que nous, Les grosses rêveuses, Les athlètes dans leurs têtes, Les manières douces de Profane Lulu; for the theatre: Foyer Jardin; essay collections Guignol, Poils de Cairote, Besoin de vélo (translated into English as Need for the Bike and, in an updated translation with new material, as Vélo); poetry, Toi qui connais du monde, Terines d’amérique.
Interview with author Paul Fournel and editor Guy Andrews here
Foreword by Christian Prudhomme, Director, Tour de France
Specification
| Dimensions | 230mm x 300mm |
| Pagination | 248pp on 150gsm Art paper |
| Standard Cover | Fabric bound hardcover with colour map collage image print and an edition-specific book marks |
| Special Cover | Swiss bound fabric in a fabric-backed Rapha Editions slipcase |
| Tip-in page | For 200 special editions only. Title pages colour printed and hand numbered edition page signed by the author and an edition-specific book mark |
| Published | 2018 by Rapha Editions |
| ISBN | 978-1-912164-04-2 |