Michelin Guide

Michelin Guides (French: Guide Michelin [ɡid miʃ.lɛ̃]) are a series of guide books published by the French company Michelin for more than a century. The term normally refers to the annually published Michelin Red Guide, the oldest European hotel and restaurant reference guide, which awards Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a star can have dramatic effects on the success of a restaurant. Michelin also publishes a series of general guides to countries.

In 1900 the tyre manufacturers André Michelin and his brother Édouard published the first edition of a guide for French motorists. At the time there were fewer than 3,000 cars in France, and the Michelin guide was intended to boost the demand for cars, and thus for car tires. For the first edition of the Michelin Guide the brothers had nearly 35,000 copies printed. It was given away free of charge, and contained useful information for motorists, including maps, instructions for repairing and changing tires, and lists of car mechanics, hotels and petrol stations. In 1904 the brothers published a similar guide to Belgium.

Guides were introduced for Algeria and Tunisia (1907); the Alps and the Rhine, covering northern Italy, Switzerland, Bavaria and the Netherlands (1908); Germany, Spain and Portugal (1910); the British Isles (1911); and "The Countries of the Sun" (Les Pays du Soleil) covering northern Africa, southern Italy and Corsica (1911). In 1909, the first English-language version of the Michelin guide to France was published.

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