Le Jeu du Tour de France, O.G.E.P., Paris, 1949

Description:
Le Jeu du Tour de France, O.G.E.P., Paris, 1949

This is one of the games that has taken care of the Tour de France ambiance with more detail...

You too can run THE TOUR DE FRANCE -
with LE JEU DU TOUR DE FRANCE, the new sensational game that will recreate all the adventures of the Tour de FRANCE cycliste, as if you were there.

THE TOUR DE FRANCE AT HOME!
With its exact itinerary, its 21 stages and all the incidents of the race,
20 international and regional champions, the official cars, the publicity caravan... The French actor BOURVIL and MISS France.

Le Jeu du Tour de France was published in 1949, at a time when the Tour de France had been running for 2 years - following the Second World War - and was being broadcast on television for the second time. A popular sport and event created in 1903, supported by the sporting press (here L'Equipe and Le Parisien libéré), the Tour de France is the subject of numerous derivative products, of which this course game is an example. This game is dedicated to Henri Desgrange (1865-1940), father of the Tour de France bicycle race.

Composed of 100 numbered squares on a looping course, set against a map of France featuring regional specialities and folk costumes, from Paris (1) to Paris (100), players move counters cut from paper boards and positioned on wooden bases (international and regional racers, supporters, advertising caravan vehicles), with a two-sided Start/Finish banner.

You can give the colors, according to their nationality or region, the names of your favorite champions. For example, the French rider could be called Bobet, Robic or Lazarides; the Belgian, Schotte or Impanis; the Italian, Bartali or Coppi; the South-West regional, Lapébie; the Breton, Cogan, and so on. You can also call on former champions: Christophe, Thys, Alavoine, Bottechia, the Pélissier brothers, Magne, Leducq, Speicher, Cuvelier, and so on. Last but not least, you can provide prizes (coins, tokens or objects) to reward the players whose runners are ranked highest".

Cardboard box.

Explanatory leaflet (“Règle du Jeu du Tour de France”).

2 cut-out sheets (international and regional riders, characters, advertising caravan vehicles).
With double-sided banner.

The stages are those of the 1949 Tour de France. It was a very "international" Tour, with stage finishes in Belgium, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.

This game is not only beautiful but quite big too. The box measures almost 40 x 40 cms and the open board measures 72 x 72 cms.
It features 20 riders, two of them the "maillot jaune" and the "lanterne rouge" which substitute the first and last rider during the game. The other 18 riders are divided in 9 national and nine regional riders. The national teams include the USSR, which did not take part in professional races, and also Great Britain and USA, which did not take part in the Tour de France either. Some of the regional teams are made up too. One of the regional teams is "Afrique du Nord", which was a French territory in 1949.

The 8 cars actually take part in the game (well, almost...). When a rider falls in a bad square, he shall throw one die and if he throws the number of the right car, he gets assistance. (For instance, if he falls on a "hunger" square he needs to throw a 5 to have some Eriam's chocolate).

On the other hand, the French actor Bourvil and "Miss Tour de France" are just there for the ambiance.

This was published in l’Équipe on June 30th, 1949. It measured almost the entire width of the newspaper page.