Tour

The route had been unveiled, the fans were ready to rumble: then, in the spring of 2020, the Tour de France was officially canceled. This meant that the race existed on paper, but no riders would be hitting the road. The phantom-Tour de France of 2020 opened a breach: the chance to uncover, in the shadow of the great national narrative, a different story. Over 40 days, Louis Canadas followed each of these imaginary stages, never straying more than a few meters from the road. France, as he photographs it, is unsensational: mountains, meadows, workers on a lunch break, minor collisions, wolves, empty shops. He photographed the France that would not know fulgurance: fields, mountains, workers at rest, road exits, wolves, deserted shops.

Over 40 days, Louis Canadas followed each of these imaginary stages, never straying more than a few meters from the road. France, as he photographs it, is unsensational: mountains, meadows, workers on a lunch break, minor collisions, wolves, empty shops. The competition gives epic accents to innocuous stretches of asphalt and anonymous villages. But what happens when nothing happens? Against sporting heroism, picturesque renderings and the world of entertainment, Louis Canadas and Fanny Taillandier tell the banality of transit routes in the book, Tour, capturing the mysterious tongue of men immersed in their environment, and probe the true meaning of “competitive racing” in order to break its detrimental spell.