In nan earlier lost to the List Jan Heine mentioned the Paris-based company CNC
This company enjoyed through at least four decades an enviable reputation for beautifully executed and handling racing frames. They seem to be difficult to come by in France, and it is often only the the "demi-course" models that are available. A couple of years ago I was lucky to buy a whole bike in a small" vide-grenier" sale in the market place of one of our local villages in Provence. Noting my interest the lady seller told me that the bike had belonged to a relative who had used it in the Tour fr France in the 50s..he had been she said a "regionaliste" by which I understood, a member of one of the several French regional teams that operated in those days. Sure enough, still on the top tube is the name of the rider, but I am still trying to trace his participation in "Le Grand Boucle"
The frame is absolutely elegant and understated, and very reminscent of the best of Urago..so much so that you wonder who actually was the frame-builder for the Nice-based company...but perhaps that is a little unfair. At Easter this year I was out in the lost villages of Burgundy ie all the farmers have deserted the land and the farms to move to better paid jobs in the cities such as Dijon, in search of a 1948 Peugeot Pro bike, very similar to the one that the French champion Emile Idee had ridden at that time. Arriving at the deserted village the only sign of life was a neglected farm that had been turned into a Catholic charity centre. Needing to ask my way, and to "faire pipi" I called in on the manager whose office I could see at the far side of a dusty quadrangle. However to reach that point I had to negotiate past "an island" of bikes..and there to my delight and amazement I saw the dusky gold paintwork and red and gold Super Vitus decals of a..CNC Speciale. "il faut etre au moins 12 euros, Monsieur" replied the rustic character to the inevitable question "Combien?" So a CNC-Speciale for 12 euros had made the 200kms outward leg of my journey worthwhile even if I never did find the Peugeot! But that in itself is another story.
I don't think it fair on CNC to simply write the company off as simply a purveyor of second-string bikes with a variety of names...Aquilon comes to mind as one of them.. That activity was the bread and butter of the wholesale side of the business Fletcher-Ducret, that is described in "The Custom Bicycle". I had some trade with them because, as you would expect of a long established business, they had lots of French "goodies".
However the side of the business that would be of interest to the List was a relatively small shop on the R/H side of a busy road leading north, just 100 m or so from the Gare du Nord. That was the Pro shop..so to speak...that's where the true CNC-Speciales were to be seen. One of my neighbours at my house in Sancerre lived close by to that shop. Being an elderly widow she has no one to help her reorganise her garage...so I was vounteered to do it. First of all the bicycles must be rearranged..and so it was that I came to lift down her CNC-Speciale, her husband's Gitane T-d-F complete with Huret Luxe gears..and a wonderful old Alcyon. After I had done the "bricollage" to hang them up again..we settled down to a long conversation over several glasses of the delicious local sauvignon blanc wine to talk about Fletcher, CNC..visits to the shop on Saturday mornings... Paris during the occupation ..evacuation to Normandy quite a moving experience really.
Sancerre is one of those lovely towns just a couple of hours from Paris, whose populations double every weekend as "les weekenders" come away from the city to breathe fresher air, and I often wonder as I trundle around the lanes, the farms and the hamlets, just how many real "barn finds" there must still be ..just waiting to be discovered. There surely must be a cache of Singers, a brace of Herses, the odd Ducheron..
Norrsi Lockley, Settle UK