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What's our bedtime reading this evening, Richard? You can read us a story. The Tour de France

by Christopher Thompson. Have you ever seen this bootlinal? You come across this one before?

I have seen the cover. I've never seen the actual book itself. It pops up on to the Amazon

recommendations every now and again. That sort of thing. But I've not actually read the book.

No. I can't remember why I read it because there are lots of books about the Tour de France.

This one is just called the Tour de France. It's by an academic professor of history,

Chris Thompson. Something prompted me to read it. I was blown away by it. The detail in it,

he's a proper historian. He's gone into the archives of all the French newspapers. He's

gone right back to the start of the tour. Even before the start of the tour, to really

set it in its historical context. It's a book about France and the race in France and what

it meant to France. All the cultural aspects of the Tour de France on France at that time.

I find it absolutely riveting. There's so much detail in it that I didn't know. I learned a lot.

It was great. But we were put in touch with Chris Thompson through his brother Richard Thompson,

who emailed the podcast, didn't he? He did. He's a listener to the podcast. That's how the connection

came about. You spoke to him shortly before the Tour de France started about the cultural

foundations of the Tour de France and why it was so important to the entire nation's psyche

at the beginning. France, why you must have an angle on this?

Well, I listened to a bit of the episode in the car and it actually really rang a bell because,

as you know, I've written quite a few books on sports history. It's amazing that very often

the best historical books about France are written by Americans because I mean,

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