Rapidité Rapidité: On the Elegance of French Racing Bicycles

This selection of twenty-two French racing bikes from the 1930s to the 1990s does not claim to be complete. It is simply intended to illustrate the elegance, beauty and variety of bicycles designed in France during this period. The title of this publication quotes the mott o of the speeding postman François from the film Jour de Fête (1949) by Jacques Tati. The unstoppable human quest for faster, higher, further can also be seen in the history of French racing bikes.

Twenty-two bikes from the collections of Alexander Philipp / Subsonico and Karl Heinrich were illuminated and photographed by Niels Schubert, Stutt gart.