Two histories revisit the bicycle's wartime heyday in occupied France
With petrol scarce between 1939 and 1945, the bicycle became indispensable transport in France — and sometimes a tool of the Resistance. Two new histories retrace this little-known chapter.
Two books published this season turn to an overlooked aspect of daily life under the Occupation: the bicycle. According to Le Monde, fuel shortages between 1939 and 1945 made the « petite reine » an essential means of transport for millions of French people, and at times a discreet ally of the Resistance.
« La Petite Reine des années noires », by Sébastien Albertelli and Clément Dusong, and « Le Vélo sous l’Occupation », by Jean-Paul Vespini, both trace this history, per Le Monde. The two titles converge on the same period and the same object, approaching from different angles a story that has drawn little attention until now: how a simple machine helped keep a country moving, and sometimes helped it resist, when cars and buses had all but disappeared from the roads.
No further detail on the books' contents, publishers or release dates was included in the available material.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
