Unless the owner of the bike comes up with some extraordinary threading for this bike, such as Swiss, or Italian..and this bike isn't Italian, it seems reasonable to assume that it's French, particularly as the seat tube diameter is probably a French plain gauge ..or a slightly reduced 26.6 double butted one.
Just about every detail of this frame shouts that it's the work of a French framebuilder..right from the use of Prugnat lugs, Wagner crown, Gargatte/RGF bracket shell..and that scooped out fork and stay end treatment.
As for the wrapped over top-eyes..these were/are very common on French handmade frames..I have at least twenty frames, made by Parisian builders, that sport these top-eyes in one form or another.
This frame is very much a generic French one, the work of one of those builders dotted in and around Paris itself and outside in small suburbs such as Montreuil, (Carre, Didier Louis), Aulnay-sous-Bois ( Alain Michel, Sasebo), Pavillion-sous-Bois (Jean Frelat), Neuilly-sur-Seine (canetti), Pontaut-Combault (Polchlopek), St Denis(fletcher), St Germain-en-Laye (Ganolo) Gazelle, Gemini, AMR, Ducheron, BACO etc etc, and as such could be compared with the equally generic British frames with their nervex Pro lugs, Campagnolo drop-out and double-fluted top-eyes. Just like so many peas in a pod.
I was told quite recently that many of the builders in and around Paris started out as assistants to other builders, and that Bernard Carre's workshops alone spawned several others such as Alain Michel, possibly Frelat, and so it is easy to understand why certain types of characteristics such as wrap-over top-eyes and stay-end treatments have become common place. The little known workshop of BACO must have employed quite a few builders as this firm alone was responsible for the sub-contracted building of many team frames such as PUCH
In the course my regular visits to France I tend to spend quite a lot of time in and around Paris, but these days it is very difficult to find anyone who remembers much about the hand-built frame industry of the capital, but just occasionally some worthwhile source of information is found. However there does not appear to be the wealth of knowledge that exists in the UK about our builders.
Norris Lockley, Settle UK
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