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The Michelin Red Guides: French Tourism
the first edition, the fueling and repairing of patently unreliable early automobiles
were the most pressing needs, so the contents were overwhelmingly technical,
more so than in any subsequent editions. The guide of 1900 included three parts.
In the first section (pp. 17–50), the company described in excruciating detail how
to use tires, how to inflate them, how to change the tire tube (la chambre à air),
how to reinstall the tube, how to change the tire (l’enveloppe), how to request that
Michelin do repairs at the factory, and how to do one’s own repairs, both of
automobile and of bicycle tires. Abundant drawings in black and white illustrated
the various parts of the tire with the appropriate terminology. Early tires, and the
valve stem apparatus in particular, were technically quite complicated, and the
tubes and tires were fragile enough that mishandling was a serious concern. The
first section also included a comprehensive list of all stockistes, the tire dealers
that had contracted with Michelin to carry a full line of Michelin products (les
stocks), divided into summer (May 1–October 1) and winter depots. In all, fortyeight
French cities had stockistes in the summer, while there were only six that
remained open all year, not including Michelin’s plant in Clermont-Ferrand or its
offices in Paris. Not surprisingly, the six open all year (Biarritz, Bordeaux, Lille,
Marseille, Nice, and Pau), with the exception of Lille, were in the south, where a
portion of the upper bourgeoisie and French aristocracy went for the winter social
season. 7
The second section (pp. 54–280) listed French cities and towns alphabetically.
Here too the focus was mostly technical, with hotels reduced to one among many
necessities while traveling, and restaurants separate from hotels received no
mention at all. The only two criteria for a town’s inclusion in the list was whether
it possessed a mechanic or a place to buy gasoline. 8 In the early days of the
automobile, before the installation of actual gasoline stations, gasoline was
purchased in 2, 5, or 10 liter containers in small groceries (épiceries) and hardware
stores (quincailleries) as frequently as in repair shops or bicycle dealers. Michelin
listed such establishments as well as the brand of gasoline sold, be it Automobiline,
Stelline, Motonaphta, or “other gasolines.” 9 Above all, the list noted the address
and phone number of the Michelin stockistes and of mechanics. For the thirteen
provincial cities with rudimentary maps, the locations of hotels, mechanics,
Michelin stockistes, the railroad station, and places to buy gas were all marked on
the maps. The third section (pp. 281–344) included practical information about
the rules of the road, taxes assessed on automobiles, information about maps, and
a bibliography of tourist guides. This last section also included advertisements
from various French automobile and auto part manufacturers with long descriptions
of how to use and to install their products. At the end of the guide, the
company also had a calendar, so that the motorist might keep track of days of the
week and holidays, sunrises, sunsets, the moon, distances traveled, the consumption
of gasoline and oil, as well as how much was spent on these.
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