One man’s world
Today, you could wander along the Rue du Puits de la Vau, in the Vendéen town of Fontenay-le-Comte, oblivious to the fact that you are close to where the fifth largest producer, by volume, of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds in France had its factory in the 1950s. You could wander past the Hôtel Lespinay-de-Beaumont, a former aristocratic 18th century town house, unaware that little more than 60 years ago it rang to the sound of the manufacture of motorcycles. The hotel is now an apartment block. The extended manufacturing site is now a car park. Today, the names Origan, Guiller Frères, René Guiller and Guiller S.A. mean little to most. But to one man they mean everything.
Jean-Marie Garçonnet inhabits an ordinary house a few kilometres away from Fontenay-le-Comte. Seen from the road you’d not know that this house is not quite as ordinary as it
