Please let me correct one minor mis-statement in Eric Elman's nice discussion of the junior Peugeot. Of course, to do this, I've snipped away the nice parts, and just left the error:
Eric said, "The [junior Peugeot] frames are lugless and durable (reminds me of Schwinn Varsity without the smooth fillet brazed joints)."
The Varsity and Continental were electrically welded. For example, the head tube was a single piece with "stub" top and down tubes that extended out about an inch, if memory serves. These were butt-welded to the tubes, and then the joint ground smooth. The tubes themselves, 1" diameter, were very heavy gauge. So, the "fillet" was actualy part of the head "tube" assembly.
But, the darned things were very durable. There was a really nice ("lady"s") model parked outside my office in downtown DC today, complete with baskets. Bright green with minor scrapes.
harvey sachs
mcLean va.