FRANCE Magazine celebrates the Tour de France in Yorkshire

For the first time in its 24-year history, FRANCE Magazine, Britain’s best-selling magazine about France, is depicting a country other than France on its cover.

To celebrate the Tour de France’s Grand Départ taking place in Yorkshire, the magazine has commissioned artist Caroline Appleyard (www.appleyard-art.co.uk) to paint the route around the county in her typically bold and colourful style for the cover of the July 2014 issue (on sale now at www.buyamag.co.uk) and for a special limited-edition poster, of which there are just 500 copies signed by the artist available from www.buyamag.co.uk/tdf

Elements to look out for in the illustration:

• Team Sky racing around the route.

• The café from Last of the Summer Wine in Holmfirth

• Bettys Tearooms

• York Minster

• A snail

Inside the magazine, award-winning travel writer and native Yorkshire-man Ray Kershaw has been commissioned to write a feature on the race’s route and Yorkshire’s French connections. These include: the French cinematographer who made films in Leeds before the Lumière Brothers ‘invented’ cinema; the Coverdale carpenter who found himself guarding Napoléon Bonaparte on the island of Saint Helena; and the aristocratic Francophile who once resided in Ripley.

Carolyn Boyd, editor of FRANCE Magazine, comments:

“We already have a great number of readers in Yorkshire, which proves there is a long love affair between the county and France. We are delighted to celebrate this in our July issue and I can’t wait to see the Grand Départ on Yorkshire turf.”