"Germany Calling"

Nothing to do with Joyce, nor even radio, but the SOOC pull-zoomed cover of the Michelin Green Guide to Germany, which popped through the letterbox today. It's a part of quite a late and oft-delayed plan for Sheol and I to hit the mainland in the summer while we are still almost-but-not-quite EU citizens.

I like Michelin. Having visited the museum at Clermont-Ferrand a few years back (on four wheels), I realised the connection between the maps, the tyres and the restaurants. 

Michelin were one of the earliest tyre makers, having been wheelwrights. previously. They gained a reputation for assisting drivers of the new fangled automobile, by corresponding and sending personalised routes to travellers, generally in a scroll type instructional sequence. They heard back from travellers who gave new routes and options in return. And so it went.

They also kept a note of where travellers had said were good places to eat, and passed these nuggets of wisdom on to other travellers. The scrolls became the Michelin maps, the useful tips became Michelin starred restaurants, and the tyres went from leather to solid to pneumatic. France had no signposts until Michelin began setting fingerposts at road junctions... 

If you venture into central France the museum is worth a whole day.

On the subject of Germany and motorbikes, Janet threw me a spin ball earlier when she suggested it might be time to change bikes!!! I hope Morrigan wasn't listening, but I did have a long chat with the local BMW dealership. Nothing was agreed and no business was done, but...