Somewhere in and amongst the dozens of bikes in my store I have a 50..or po ssibly a 49cms B>Carre frame, fitted out with Le Tout Francais equipmen t such as Huret Success Titanium gear, Mafac gold anodise Mod 2000 brakes, possibly Pelissier Mod 2000 S/F hubs..and the inevitable TA triple chainset ...Oh and and Ideale saddle.
It was the first Carre that I ever acquired..and I couldn't resist it..not only because it is such a lovely machine but because it was standing all al one in the middle of Monsieur Reboul's bike shop in Montelimar ( where the nugget mines are)...surrounded by dozens of those nasty carbon-fibre things now called bikes.
Unlike many Carre frames..most of which were built for the trade, this one is a one-off custom build, and as such it has more attention to detail i n the finishing of the lugs, drop-outs and stay-ends etc..and all the lugs actually are from the same set. My guess is that it is a late 70s / early 8 0s model. The frame is finished in a shade of bluish green not altogether u nlike Bianchi's beautiful celeste...and there is some chrome..certainly on the stays but maybe also on the head-lugs.
I need to move on some of my immense collection - or so Nelson Miller ke eps telling me -and I might be persuaded to let this one go, particularl y as I have just bought another CARRE in my size ..about 21 inch./
So...Marc..I will try to take some photos of it and send them over to you. However David..I do not have a Le Chemineau in the collection..and that one of yours looks to be about my size. Any possibility of doing a swap-around and trade-on?
I hope I haven't broken any of Dale's rules in making this proposal.
Norris Lockley...from Settle UK, where winter has arrived early.