Chuck....I wish you hadn't dug out that old copy of Le Cycle with the Rebour drawing of this peculiar drop-out! Was it really 1972 when Gitane brought it out... so, so long ago.. already 33 years!
i see quite a lot of this particular model of Gitane around the second-hand shops in France, and was offered one last October, with Campagnolo equipment, Gran Sport I think, Reynolds 531 DB main tubes, Mafac brakes, for about $30. The finish was a metallic light grey/silver with just a hint of blue.. and the whole machine apart from the self-adhesive transfers was in good condition. Unfortunately at 57cms/23" it was too big for me..so I passed on the opportunity. It's as well that I saved my money because two days later I picked up a 1963 52cms Gitane Tour de France complete with Huret Luxe rear mech and one of the more expensive Stronglight chainsets .. all for $20. Pity about the ghastly self-adhesive aluminium film decals.
I had always thought that those idiosyncratic hexagonal holed drop-outs were a Vitus product because in France they had been used on a Gitane model built from Vitus tubing for the home market. They also resemble a cranked budget-level forged drop-out "made by Vitus" for other builders...but without the holes.
I remember this topic coming up on the List last year, and I made a point of looking closely at the front fork ends on the $30 one. As far as can remember they were LG, with the "LG" motif stamped just about where the fork blade tip would end. LG was a small company based just up the valley from Vitus, in the St Etienne region, that carried out stamping and forging work for the cycle industry, and did a small reange of fork crowns drop-outs etc under their own name.
It appears from the Rebour drawing that the hexagonal drop-out was an in-house design by the Gitane company, but I reckon that it was probably forged by a company such as LG who probably did the same type of work on the Vitus fork ends.
Norris Lockley...its starting to rain for the Easter weekend.. Settle, UK