[Notes from 2 e mail messages from Jean Richard, April 2006:]

I have attached the finisher medal, the frame badge, and the control card of the late Alain Gicquel, who was a friend of mine from 1965 until his premature death in 1999: I found them in his flat, and as he had no family anymore, I salvaged all the reminders of his cycling activities in order to preserve them, and to avoid them ending up in the bin.

I can imagine that the current control cards do not look like these older ones. For the Audax event, there were stamps from the U.A.F., or from local cycling associations which provided helpers, or the stamp of the check-point itself. At the arrival, it was the personal stamp of Guy Bossière, the president of the U.A.F., and on the last page, he has given his signature for the homologation, together with the late Pierre Kraemer, who liked to ride PBP alternately as an Audax or Randonneur. You can find him on the time results in 1956 and 1966, not too far from the winners. In 1951 and 1961, he finished PBP Audax, according to the alternating "rule". Pierre Kraemer was vice-president of the U.A.F. and the highest authority for the homologation of the brevets. His nickname "Le Gaulois" (the Gaul) was due to his strong moustache. He has added an ironical comment directed to the late Alain Gicquel "-How much cigars did you smoke?" It was not a joke at all. Actually, Alain considered all the brevets like pleasure-trips with a travel agency (he would have made a good randonneur too, but he enjoyed rather the Audax organization), and underway, he incessantly smoked big cigars. Well, it is surely not orthodox, but I would like to say that in the sixties, none of us was very common...