My first guess at this frame wasn't too far out, but further sloothing has provided more detail. The frame id French, the brand that it, and they did sponsor amateur clubs such as US Creteil - a very famous Division One team - that used to be the "nursery" for Lejeune pros,
What has changed my interpretation of the frame is that I have now managed to broswe on the Ebay page. The frame as the seller says has a few years on its back - hence the Galli equipment - but, nice as it is, it isn;t as dramatic as the lugless ones that the company made in the 80s and 90s. My guess at the frame-builders Meral or Phillippe or Dennis Quillon are way out too - they came later than this frame, but nevertheless Phillippe's earlier company Manutubes could have made a stab at this one, possibly even did. Manutaubes also liked to engrave the name of the frame on the top-tube, in the butted zone, just about where the Pros stick their name decals.
If this is a really top frame then it was probably made in the suburb of Paris just due East of the "peripherique" the outer ring road, called Montreuil. Montreuil is really a town in its own right , but at just 100meters or so on the other side of the bridge it has been virtually absorbed into Paris, but just don't happen to say this if you're drinking a pastis in a bar there...
The company was called CACEG - an abbreviation for "Cadres, ACcessoires En Gros" means, "frames, accessories, in bulk(wholesale) " and was run by a Monsieur Ripoll with a merry band of frame-builders. They only built custom frames.. did a great line in tandems, and also turned out special lines with twin seat tubes a la Saxon. Many frames were bronze-welded. they were builders to the trade and it would be rare to find a frame transferred up CACEG. Come to think of it would you want that on your down-tube? I remember that in the early 80s CACEG built for Jean-Paul Routens just after he had taken over the Grenoble-based business from his father, Jo. Just writing this makes me wonder just how many other companies he built custom frames for. Montreuil was a curious town 25 years ago as it seemed to be the place where clusters of builders assembled, like jewellery quarters in certain towns. Didier Louis was another well-known builder who had a shop there. There was also another reputed builder whose work crops up in the trade all over France, called Bernard Carre. I picked up one of his road frames a very neat 47cms, all Super Vitus quite cheaply and found a 62cms fully built up bike - maillard, Stronglight, simplex etc, just before I left France in August.. At 40 euros it was a gift, but knowing that I had three other bikes to collect on my way back north I just couldn't find anywhere to hang it in or on my car. Carre is another builder who built mainly for the trade. A quick way to check out a CARRE is to examine the top-eyes which are the plated ones with a slight overlap. They are always stamped "B.CARRE".. and I mean STAMPED, not engraved. A theory comes to mind here when I reread this email. Someone on the List a couple of weeks ago stated that he had visited the Lejeune factory at Maisons-Alfort, but that he hadn't seen any evidence of frame-building, Frames were probably jobbed out. Maisons_alfort is next to Creteil, US Creteil is sponsored by Carlos whose frames were built by CACEG in not very far away Montreuil. Carre is in the same area... so just possibly either Carre or CACEG built the better Lejeunes. It's a theory anyway.
As for Carlos? I managed to find some literature from the 1983 Paris Show at which M.M. Remacle the owner of Carlos had a stand. In the literature Remacle states that his frames were made at a certain address in Montreuil, that address being CACEG's
Unfortunately CACEG didn't last long into the 90s as far as I can make out; as for CARLOS the brand was alive until about 5 years ago and might still be. Remacle has changed his trading name and was importing GIOS, FONDRIEST and TOMMASSINI the last time I saw him.
Got there, just about, in the end.
Norris Lockley... looking for my passport.. Settle UK