Times have changed and cities too.. the Paris of the third millenium isn't what it was only twenty years ago... speaking in cycling terms Not too long ago, say the early-to mid-80s you could stand in the Place de la Concorde,gaze up the Champs Elysees, or backwards down the Tuileries gardens.. then stroll leisurely up the Champs taking in the Parisien air,, take time out about half way up the Avenue at the Pub Renault at that time a Car showroom that doubled up as an ice-cream bar/ restaurant, and was more importantly the HQ of the Hinault-led Renault-Gitane Pro team.,, and just absorb the atmosphere.. particularly during the Tour-de-France , when one of the showrooms would be given over to exhibitions of bikes, photos etc. I remember one particularly gruesome exhibition that featured photos of the most horrfying crashes, accidents and injuries of the Tour. In a good year ie when Hinault or Lemond were winning, or had won the whole team would assemble in the Pub on the evening of the last stage.
Having paid one's respects under the Arc de Triomphe at l'Etoile, to the Unknown Soldier, it was full speed ahead to the serious business of bike-shop gazing along the Avenue de la Grande Armee. Along this northerly extension of the Champs E. just about every major manufacturer would have its "Siege Sociale" or official place of registration .. and a bike -showroom.
Perhaps 30 yards down on the R/H side it was Cycles Branton - the "home" of Lejeune bikes and a lot of other wonderful stuff besides; another 30/50 yards further down, same side, it was Piaggio - the company that owned Bianchi. Taking your life in your hands at this point it was a quick sprint across the multi-lane avenue and there you were staring into the tiny window of Boissis - a "boutique" made to appear much much larger inside by the cunning use of mirror-walls. As an independent Boissis - a woman owner I think _ could stock anything that took her fancy. The window was crammed full of goodies but was too small to take a bike so the few in stock crammed up against the mirrors and reproduced themselves.. There were Colnagos, Somec, Guerciottis , BH from Spain ( this was the company's official French HQ).
Tearing yourself away from the most up-market delicatessen in Paris just a couple of doors away where, on Sunday mornings the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the vulgarly rich jostled in the "deli" just to be seen, large black Mercedes would physically shunt small Fiat Panda cars out of their way at the kerb side, past the "chocolatier" - same clientele as next door - and on to the superb "magasins" of Mercier ( actually run by the Danguillaume family - ex-Pros), a couple of doors away from Wolber.. Another dash across the Avenue to a tiny independent shop where the best of Raleighs team-bikes could be seen alongside Pinarellos, CBT Italias, Vitus 979 alloys ( quite a revolutionary frame at the time). So tiny was the shop that it had shelves running around the little display area, with frames perched precariously on them. Back again across the road to the Oscar Egg shop ( this one was the first to disappear) .. and back again to the wedge-shaped shop on the corner of two streets that had been Chaplait and was now Gitane's HQ.. and where the team Pros often hung around. This was a "top shop". Left side again and it was the Motobecane concessionaire, complete with a subterranean workshop equipped for about a dozen mechanics in best blue overalls...
After all that excitement it was quite a long walk to the very end of the Avenue where Peugeot had .. and perhaps still has.. its Parisien HQ which was the address for the Pro team. Plenty of good French stuff there. And the journey of delights was not quite over.. at least for the "cognoscenti" or whatever the French word is for those "in the know" Across the large "place" and past the Palais de Congres, keeping to the L/H side of the road... just smaller buildings now.. and there it was.. a couple of small windows.. but with frames to drool over.. and a name not well-known outside the circle of cyclists who came to this little cyclists' Mecca" - AMR !
AMR was a small family-owned maker of what is probably France's least known tube sets, Camus. I have often wondered about the name, and assumed it had taken the surname of the famous French philosopher Albert Camus. Later on I was to meet up with the family at their factory/home in the cheese-making region of Franche-Comte, and learned that the son had little desire to take on his father's company.. and left to try to make a living on the stage.
AMR -Aux Maisons -Rouge - named after the cluster of red-brick buildings in an otherwise un-named hamlet - produced wonderful sets of ovalised tubes and matching pairs of curved top and seat-tubes, long before the major manufacturers caught up with the trend.. So in their two tiny windows near the Palais de Congres this miniscule company displayed touring, road-racing, and time-trial frames to kill for..I recall that one time they displayed two Audax type frames alongside each other to illustrate the different designs needed when making a 48cms frame as opposed to a 63cms. A very visual laerning experience.. and not to be forgotten.
But AMR has gone, as have the Cycles Branton, Chaplait, Wolber, Mercier, Oscar Egg, Piaggio.. Boissis was still there when I last looked.. maybe four years ago.. or more. I wonder if the little shop just around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe who imported |Benotto and other Italian exoitca is still there .. I doubt it.
But all is NOT LOST.. Chapter 2 will begin shortly.
Norris Lockley .. Settle sur Ribble, UK