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Bicycling, Class, and Politics of Leisure
the Parisian region, Normandy, the North and a string of departments surrounding
the Massif Central from the lower Loire to the Rhône. Conversely, the bicycle
remained comparatively rare in the less prosperous, more isolated or more
mountainous regions, as the absence of cycling clubs in a large part of Brittany
and in the Lozère, Aveyron, Creuse, Nièvre, Hautes-Alpes, and Corsican departments
illustrates. French cycling in the fin-de-siècle was essentially an urban
phenomenon, with the exception of the western part of central France, where the
establishment of a cycle industry countered the general pattern. 36
Although the representation of specific trades and careers depended on local
employment patterns, the members of these cycling clubs were largely drawn from
the petty bourgeoisie and skilled artisans, such as locksmiths, mechanics, painters,
masons, clock and watchmakers, jewelers, goldsmiths, glassworkers, mirror
makers, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, printers, engravers, decorators,
cabinetmakers, lingerie makers, truss makers, photographers, and tailors. In
addition, many members came from the food trades (grocers, butchers, bakers,
wine merchants and millers), or from among hotel-, café- and restaurant-owners,
tobacconists and retailers, particularly – and this comes as no surprise – bicycle
and hardware shopowners. Employees such as shop assistants, municipal employees,
bailiffs, clerks, tax collectors, insurance agents and office supervisors were
also members as were pharmacists, barbers, schoolteachers, students and even
soldiers from nearby garrisons. 37
Frequently local notables, such as the mayor, a prominent industrialist, businessman
or government official, assumed the highest positions in a cycling club. The
honorary president of the Cyclistes Lunévillois was the town’s mayor, its treasurer
a local businessman. In Brittany, the president of the Vélo Cycle Rennais was a
conductor of the Bridges and Roads department as well as president of the Rennes
Choral. His vice-presidents were a businessman, an industrialist, and a traveling
salesman, while his treasurer was not only an accountant, but also the son of a
municipal councilor. 38 No doubt this tendency was in part due to the “natural”
authority that came with these relatively exalted social, political and professional
positions. But if clerks, students, artisans, and shopkeepers sought these people
out to lead their clubs it was also because they represented a degree of respectability
and political conformity that ensured the authorization from the departmental
prefect required to found a club. In addition, clubs with such influential leaders
could expect to benefit from municipal support (financial subsidies, authorizations,
and assistance for club events) as well as from the generosity of local notables. In
August 1910, for example, Baron Charles d’Huart offered the Union Cycliste de
Longwy-Bas an excursion to the ruins of Orval, including a lunch for all participants
for which he paid. 39 The previous year in the nearby town of Briey, the great
industrialist François de Wendel had donated 100 francs to the Véloce-Club Briotin
of which he was the président d’honneur. 40
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