European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 3, 1959, Darmstadt, Hesse The stars and stripes Friday july 3, 1959 France gripped by greatest show of year9 by Don Walter staff writer Paris is a strange silence came Over the Little French town of to nay Boutonnet the other appeared that nearly All the 970 inhabitants of the Charente maritime Community near la Rochelle were lining the Mai Street but it was quiet. Hardly a word was being spoken As every one stood anticipation Heads cocked toward the a motorized gendarme s whistle attention Clear the Way Les co Reurs Arri vent. The greatest show of the year France what frenchmen some times Call the circus without agent was the Road. The tour de France bicycle race was underway and the nation again was gripped by annual fever. Frenchmen of All Ages had for gotten about politics the High Cost of living or the fact that the government intends to lower the support Price wine. All that mattered that Day to nay Boutonnet and about the mos important thing life for a Large percentage of French men women and children this month is the 46th annual tour de France. National sport the . Has its baseball. I Spain it s the bullfights. For the French bicycling is the National sport and the Champion cyclist Isa National hero. France devotes three weeks a year to indulgence its sport. The tour de France climaxes a series of local contests and during july the nation s top cyclists along with champions from neighbouring countries com Pete a grueling 3,000-Milecircuit of the country up and Down mountains Over Cobblestone roads through narrow alleys of medieval towns and Down Broad Straightaway. They average 200 Miles a Day. Each year the tour route slips into neighbouring coun tries. This year sections of Belgium Switzerland Italy and Luxembourg Are , the cyclists will wheel into the pare Des princes near the Bois de Boulogne Paris traditional terminus of the tour \ where the Winner and runners up Are announced and about $250,001in prize Money will be distributed but Between now and july 1 France will be spellbound by a Carniv Lesque atmosphere built up largely because of the commercial Ballyhoo that surrounds the tourist is said that for every two wheeled vehicle the race itself there Are four four Wheeler machines a publicity caravan that precedes. Its Gaudy Parade include painted convertibles Loudspeaker vans or soundtracks. There also Isan army of newsmen but their Parade follows the tour. One truck has a Complete Darkroom that develops newsreel film As soon As it is shot so that it can be flown Back to Paris or rushed by car to make the evening newscast television. Tours exploited every aspect of the tour has been exploited by the advertisers and this has been going since the year the tour was organized in1903, when bicycle manufacturers helped support the race. French newspaper circulation jumps 10 per cent during the tour. Cyclists follow a strict diet. Most printers strike brings violence Fyk. It i7/-x-? la. Him e the British printing unions that has threatened to newspapers erupted into violence when strikers distribution of emergency edition of at to Jpn has since agreed to of them Don t even smoke. Some French firms have paid As much As $2,500 to enter a truck the Parade. A French bottled Gas corporation annually sends nine trucks along with the tour for which it pays about $12,000. Other companies pass out thousands of paper hats free sports magazines and other gifts. Not objectionable however the commercialism is not Felt to be objectionable. The tour de France committee that controls everything connected with the rally declares that support from this source keeps the tour honest that it takes the place of heavy betting. The Only restriction the advertisers is that they May not sell their products route. They Are guerrillas ready assault Castro Western Cuba Havana up armed guerrilla bands Are forming the mountains of Western Cuba it has been reported and the army is trying to smash them before they gain enough strength for All out assault Premier Fidel Castro s government. The new threat came at a time when the so called revolutionary. 1 it it j 1. Up of circulation offices Brandon Lakenheath a m 43, London Bushy Park a next 115 or Ken Aston c 6473j Oxford Fairford a m 145 distribution manager Germany 5s,. �. Bit big. C France chateau Roux m 39-98 la Rochelle m 776 Metz c 686619 Paris cd Balzac 54-00 ext Bel Manor Italy leghorn Darby m 1465 Spain Madrid c 334266 ,.n c 753 s6 exp 61� Frankfurt c 87647 Kaiserslautern c 5 17, Mannheim c 86402, Munich c 65923, Nurnberg c 73456 Stuttgart c 84225, Wiesbaden c 74544, Wuerzburg c 73493 North Africa Morocco Casablanca ,52910 Libya Tripoli 8143 Greece Athens c 99-749 the Elishea the new York office should a sent to 641 a hint of hts by ii1
