Hi, Norris & CR Mates---
Fascinating photos, Norris! I grew up in an old factory town of lovely, ivy-covered mid-1800s mills, so these photos really resonate with me. I would love to see a picture book of some of the great old cycle factories and bike shops of France, England and Italy (a "then and now" kind of book which I've seen on such cities as Boston and Baltimore).
I also want to thank you for your earlier response to my post regarding Gustav Flaubert's naming the coach "Hirondelle" in Madam Bovary, a couple of decades before any known reference to the bicycle builder. The information you provided on Hirondelle was extremely helpful, and, as always, delivered with great verve.
After doing some more research on the Madam Bovary/Hirondelle subject it appears to me that the suggestion astutely made by List Member David Bean is correct----That is, "Hirondelle" which means the bird, "Swallow," was used to name the particular coach in the story as ships are given names by their owners.
David pointed out that there are references to such named coaches in the works of Dickens and other authors, which is true. So it seems that Flaubert's use of the name does not help us move the date of the bicycle manufactury's existence back to 1856, the time of Madam Bovary's publication, but to the original mid/late 1880s, as Norris noted. So I thank David Bean for that enlightenment.
Cheers all round,
Peter Jourdain
Whitewater, Wisconsin US of A
> A couple of weeks ago there was a short exchange of
> info about this company and brand of bike.
> In a reply I tried to describe the superb factory
> - not really the correct word- that still stands in
> St Etienne, but my words failed to do justice to the
> skill of the architects and builders.
>
> I have just found among a miscellany of photos,
> some recent ones of these premises. Whether you're
> just interested in old bikes..or in architecture..or
> in both ( are you listening, Nelson?), then you
> should not miss these photos
>
> And just to add to the justification, Manufrance
> was the first company to routinely fix the front
> brake behind the fork crown - the obvious place to
> site it. Not only that..they actually made the
> brakes in the factory. And we framebuilders of aero
> time-trial frames in the 80s really had only
> rediscovered the wheel when we thought we were smart
> in tucking those miniscule Dia-Compe 400 aero brakes
> back of the crown.
>
> But there again we didn't have the luxury of the
> large clearances of 70+mm to play about with..but
> there again, again, we were not fitting hammered
> mudguards either.
>
> The photos are at :-
> http://www.flickr.com/
>
> Norris Lockley..Settle UK
>
>
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