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Stephen L. Harp
Although historical accounts have focused on the vision and ingenuity of
Michelin in producing the first guide, 10 the company’s primary contribution was
in building a better mousetrap (at least from the perspective of people traveling
by automobile) and rebuilding an ever better one with each successive edition of
the guide. Completely overlooked by everyone who has even briefly praised
Michelin’s first red guide is the extent to which Michelin borrowed both its format
and much of its information from the annuaires, or directories, published by the
Touring Club de France (TCF) in the 1890s. While Michelin did introduce the
inclusion of its stockistes, of places to buy gas, and of city maps, the TCF pioneered
the comprehensive list of mechanics. Lists of hotels had long been a mainstay of
both Baedeker guides to France and Guides Joanne, and the TCF included them
in its annuaires. Michelin’s genius was in adapting the TCF’s focus on information
useful for motorists and in quickly altering the red guides to keep pace with the
changing conditions of automobile travel.
The Touring Club published its first annuaire in 1891, listing its leaders and
regular members with their addresses. The annuaire also included a short list of
towns with hotels that had offered the TCF guaranteed prices for meals and a room
in addition to a short list of towns with mechanics. As the membership grew, the
TCF could not list all members, shifting its focus to practical tourist information
for its members. 11 By 1899, that is the year before the first Michelin guide, the
TCF’s annuaire (gray in color, of approximately the same dimensions as the first
red guide; the TCF’s special annuaire for motorists sported a red cover) featured
a list of French cities and towns with the number of inhabitants, the department in
which each was located, whether it was the seat of a canton, subprefecture, or
prefecture, whether it had a train station, a post office, a telegraph office, each of
which was represented with a symbol to save space in the list. Both the items and
the symbols were exactly duplicated in the first Michelin guide. Moreover, the
Michelin guide used distinctions established by the TCF in evaluating mechanics.
Claiming that Michelin’s close relationship with mechanics, who often made
decisions about what kind of tires to stock and to install on automobiles, precluded
the firm’s objectivity, the Michelin red guide merely listed whether a given mechanic
had met the TCF’s certification procedure for minor or major repair jobs. 12
Initially, Michelin’s listing of hotels differed markedly from that of the Touring
Club. Although Michelin included essentially the same hotels as the Touring Club,
Michelin did not – unlike the TCF – guarantee exact prices in 1900. Instead,
Michelin had three categories of hotels, but the categories suggested price ranges;
and they did not vouch for the quality of the accommodations. Hotels marked with
three asterisks in the guide were those where an average room, candle (for lighting
before widespread use of electricity), and three meals including wine cost 13 or
more francs daily. Hotels with two asterisks offered the same items for 10–13
francs, and those with one asterisk charged less than 10 francs. 13 After a hotel’s
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