Norris, It's great to hear that you've been educated by the great Gianni Marcarini. It's also worth mentioning that his shop is a wonderful source for authentic looking reproductions of classic era team jerseys:
short sleeves:
http://www.cycles-marcarini.com/
http://www.cycles-marcarini.com/
I've purchased both a San Raphaël and a Mercier-Huchinson jersey from them, although I didn't order from the Web site. I did use the Web site to view the jerseys but I actually ordered using the coupon from their advertisement in Veló magazine. It should not matter at this time of year, but for future reference, I recommend avoiding placing an order during the summer.
If you order via telephone, ask for Lise-Marie. (If she still works there - perhaps Norris knows for sure.) Between her barely passable English and your barely passable French, things will get worked out - eventually. At the very least, you will be enthralled by her accent, unless like Lise-Marie, you're female.
Actually, if like many fans of the classic eras, you're a bit heavier now than in your youth, things will work out fine. My problem was that I still wear a French size #2, which required a special order. And that's when things became a bit interesting.
Oh - I also purchased a modern "Normandie" jersey from them.
(It has a great illustration of Mont Saint-Michel.) Sadly,
that transaction proceeded without any interesting
complications...
Amitiés,
Fred "Raphaël" Rednor
> >From what I have gathered about this List over the past
> couple or three
> years, one thing is certain and that is that more than a few
> members
> have watched the Tour de France live, and witnessed and
> probably taken
> part in that monstrous give=away, or should that be
> "throw-away" that
> is the Caravane Publicitaire.
> That being the case you may have noticed a battered old van
> tagging
> along towards the end of the convoy... a van with pictures of
> numerous
> Pro team shirts and strips painted on its sides. It doesn't
> always do
> all the stages but you are almost certain to see it at the
> final stage,
> parked at the top of the Champs Elysees, quite near the Arc
> de Triomphe.
> It belongs to Cycles Marcarini.
>
> The driver is usually Gianni Marcarini, a former Pro in the
> 60/70s, once
> a co-equipier of Eddy Merckx, who settled down, after hanging
> up his
> wheels, to open a very impressive bike shop at Hennebont in
> lower
> Brittany. Almost thirty years or so ago I chanced upon his
> shop when I
> was out on a training ride and while following some of the
> post-Tour
> criteriums; the opportunity of a visit wasn't to be missed.
>
> Gianni is a small compact intense Italian..and his wife who
> worked in
> the shop at that time looked as though she had just stepped
> off the set
> of the film "Valley of the Dolls". "Bonjours "were exchanged
> all around
> and as the pleasantries and introductions died away Gianni
> rushed off
> into his back-room and emerged clutching a small can in his
> left hand,
> and raising that arm he pointed at the can with his right
> middle finger
> and enquired "Le col Dunlop! Disponible???" which was his
> way, it
> transpired, of asking me if I could get hold of a supply of
> this
> UK-produced light cream-coloured tub cement. To reinforce his
> enquiry he
> added "C'est le meilleur" "It's the best!"
>
> I must have been the first English owner of a bike shop to
> enter his
> premises, and I think that Gianni thought that God had
> answered his
> prayers when I arrived. It appeared that Le Col Dunlop was
> considered by
> many Pro riders to be the best tub glue available
> "Indispensable,
> Monsieur!" .."Just can't do without it!". Gianni's problems
> were that he
> could not get hold of a regular supply in France.
>
> he went on to explain that in his experience most Pro's
> mechanics used a
> type of two-pack approach to sticking on tubs. First having
> ensured that
> the rim was clean and abraded with the end of a file, the
> mechanic
> applied a thick coat of the thick garrishly
> terra-cotta-coloured
> Clement cement to the rim..then a thin layer of "col Dunlop"
> to the
> tubular..both articles then being left to dry. When dry a
> second coat of
> the indispensible but increasingly -hard -to- find "col
> Dunlop" was
> applied to the tubular, and a similar coat to the rim. When
> almost dry,
> the tub was rolled on to the rim, inflated and allowed to
> dry. The
> resulting bond was pronounced to be "Impeccable, Monsieur".
>
> Intent on securing a contract with me for a never=ending
> supply of "le
> Col Dunlop" before I left his shop, Gianni asked me what I
> was going to
> do the following evening...would I care to eat dinner with
> the family,
> meet some of his friends..talk about some "beeeessness". As I
> was
> camping out just down the coast and cooking over a butane
> stove, the
> invitation was too good to miss. However thinking that I was
> about to
> decline his offer he continued.."...you know Eddy, Francesco
> et
> Bernard.vont diner aussi..." to which I fumbled the response
> to the
> effect of "...Merckx
> , Moser..Thevenet..?" "Oui, Monsieur!" I had been invited to
> eat dinner
> with these three "Greats".
>
> I time-trialled back to the tent and burbled out to my wife
> the nature
> and extent of M. Marcarini's kind invitation. Now my wife has
> a highly
> developed sense of privilege and of social ranking, of who
> should mix
> with whom..and she certainly did not think, and told me so in
> no
> uncertain terms..that I should think myself a good enough
> cyclist to
> dine out with the Cannibal, Mr Paris-Roubaix Moser and
> Bernard the
> recent winner of his second T-d-F.
>
> And so it came to pass...But I had learnt how the Pros stuck
> on their
> tubs, and had that information reinforced the hard way when,
> in 1983 I
> managed by some freak of fortune, to find myself right in the
> middle of
> the Paris-Roubaix caravan of "suiveurs", and watching the
> Mercier
> mechanics swop tubs in the back of their wagon at the
> "Ravitaillement"
> pits at Valenciennes. " Clement et Dunlop! Impeccable!"
>
> Norris Lockley..never able to forget the viscosity of
> terra-cotta of
> Clement tub cement..Settle, UK
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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