FRENCH REVOLUTIONS - Softcover

TIM MOORE's books include French Revolutions, Do Not Pass Go, Spanish Steps, Nul Points and I Believe in Yesterday. He lives in London.

With every book, this British writer inches ever closer to mastering Bill Bryson's unique mixture of travelogue and comedy. His latest offering finds the author on the roads and highways of France, Switzerland, and Germany, a 36-year-old novice cyclist trying to complete the Tour de France. Not the actual Tour de France, that is. Moore set off on the course several weeks before the actual race began, just to see if he could finish all 2,256 miles of it. Like his previous books, Frost on My Moustache (2000) and The Grand Tour (2001), this is not so much a travelogue as a travel situation comedy. Like the protagonist of a sitcom, things just keep happening to Moore: he finds himself in the unlikeliest of places, meeting the unlikeliest of people. He charts his tour progress with an impish wit, never taking anything too seriously, and is engagingly honest about his own shortcomings as a Tour de France cyclist. (He cheats, in other words.) Moore, and the reader, develop a greater understanding of what it takes to be a true tour cyclist: equal parts determination, stamina, and lunacy. His descriptions of the places he visits make these small towns and villages seem instantly familiar; the people he encounters become as real as our closest friends. About halfway through the book, we realize that it doesn't really matter whether he finishes the course; getting there is all the fun. A must for fans of offbeat travel books by the likes of Bryson, Calvin Trillin, and Tony Hawks. David Pitt
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