French automobile designers: Coachbuilders of France, Adolphe Clément-Bayard, Henri Rougier, Gabriel Voisin, Carrosserie Pourtout, François Castaing, Claude Lobo, Weymann Fabric Bodies, Charles Terres Weymann, Robert Opron, Patrick Le Quément, Olivier Bou

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 26. Chapters: Coachbuilders of France, Adolphe Clément-Bayard, Henri Rougier, Gabriel Voisin, Carrosserie Pourtout, François Castaing, Claude Lobo, Weymann Fabric Bodies, Charles Terres Weymann, Robert Opron, Patrick Le Quément, Olivier Boulay, André Citroën, Heuliez, Louis Coatalen, Henri Chapron, Paul Bracq, Georges Paulin, Jean-Pierre Ploué, Georges Bouton, Claude Galopin, Hibbard & Darrin, Philippe Charbonneaux, André Lefèbvre, Saoutchik, Henri Perrot, Jousset. Excerpt: Gustave Adolphe Clément-Bayard (also spelled Gustave Adolphe Clément, Gustavus Adolphus Clément, Gustavus Adolphus Clément-Bayard; 22 September 1855 ¿ 10 March 1928) was a French entrepreneur. An orphan who became a blacksmith and a Compagnon du Tour de France, he went on to manufacture bicycles, pneumatic tyres, motorcycles, automobiles, aeroplanes and airships. In 1894 he was a passenger in the winning vehicle in the world's first motor race. George Lemaitre's Peugot was judged to be the winner of the Paris-Rouen Competition for Horeseless Carriages (Concours des Voitures sans Chevaux). He changed his name to Clément-Bayard five years after the successful launch of the Clément-Bayard automobile brand. It honoured the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières from an Imperial army during the Siege of Mézières in 1521. Clément-Bayard was appointed a Commander of the Légion d'honneur in 1912. Adolphe Clément, the son of a grocer, was born at rue du Bourg, Pierrefonds, Oise. He was the second of five children of Leopold Adolphus Clement and Julie Alexandrine Rousselle. His mother died when he was seven years old and although his father remarried he also died 2 years later when Adolphe was nine years old. For the next seven years he was raised by his stepmother who had remarried a school teacher. Adolphe studied at the primary school in Pierrefonds and then at the College of Villers-Cotterêts. He worked in the family business by delivering groceries, and at 13 chose to be apprenticed to a farrier/blacksmith. During the winter of 1871¿1872, the 16 year old Adolphe left Pierrefonds to travel around France as a Compagnon du Tour de France, an organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages. He had saved 30 francs (circa 100 Euros in 2006) by doing multiple jobs for three years. He subsisted in each city by working in forges owned by the Compagnons du Tour de France, shoeing horses, repairing metal and doing any kind of