Antoine Blondin followed twenty-seven Tours de France for L'Équipe and never wrote a line in advance: he waited for the finish, sick with dread at the twenty-kilometre marker, then filed his column. He coined words that stayed in the language of cycling, such as the “Poupoularité” of Raymond Poulidor, the eternal runner-up. He admired the champions and wrote for the men at the back.
The story
Born in 1922, Antoine Blondin belonged to the “Hussards”, the post-war writers of quick prose and ironic distance from the political commitments of their time. “Un singe en hiver” won him the prix Interallié in 1959.
A sports journalist as much as a novelist, he covered twenty-seven Tours de France and seven Olympic Games for L'Équipe. His daily column, all puns and tenderness for the men at the back of the field, became a part of the race itself.
He died in 1991 and lies in Division 74, in the vault of the Vierne family, a branch of his own.
On site, do not miss
A grave linked both to literature and to the great epic of the Tour de France.
Visitors' questions
What was the Hussards movement Antoine Blondin belonged to?
A French literary current of the post-war years, marked by a brisk style and an ironic distance from political commitment, in reaction against the Sartrean existentialism that dominated the period.
The writers and poetsWhy is Antoine Blondin associated with the Tour de France?
He followed twenty-seven Tours de France for L'Équipe, and seven Olympic Games. His daily column, made of puns and of tenderness for the stragglers, combined a gift for the memorable phrase with an insider's knowledge of the “Grande Boucle”, France's name for the race.
The grave of Laurent FignonWhere is Antoine Blondin's grave?
In Division 74 of Père-Lachaise, a sector that gathers several literary and journalistic figures of the twentieth century.
The grave of Rosa BonheurDo other writer-journalists rest at Père-Lachaise?
Yes, the cemetery holds several figures who pursued literary and journalistic careers side by side — a reflection of how porous the two worlds were in the twentieth century.
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