And that’s the idea actually. The Guide Michelin was really kind of a guide “what to do with a car” (in 1900 that was a question: now I got this modern thingie, but what can I do with it?). One possibility is to go to a restaurant, of which there are three categories (1 to 3 stars): worth a stop, worth a detour, worth a journey.

When they initially created the Michelin guide (more a booklet), they gave it away for free to garages, automotive shops, and filling stations as promotional material. Unnfortunately because it was free, the employees were using it to prop up things, just left them laying around and generally didn’t use it as a promotional device. Once Michenlin started charging for the guide, drivers started looking more closely and started using the guides increasely for trips