"MERAL was a small company of about fifteen staff working out workshops&n
bsp; at La Fuye, just near Tours in the Loire valley. The company had a full
 range of bikes for all types of cycle sport, and most were very elegant, well 
brazed and nicely finished. The company also had a custom shop. Although
models were produced in small series, the build was excellent and the price 
sensible, if you appreciate what I mean...possibly FOLLIS quality..but slightly 
larger production."

"Their foreman builder was Denis Quillon who, when MERAL was bought out in 
the early 1980s and some worked moved nearer to Le Mans, stopped in La Fuye
 and set up his own frame shop. (He enjoyed) a tremendous reputation especially
 with the racing fraternity. He is supposed to have built for Laurent Figno
n, Cyrille Guimard, other of the Renault-Gitane teams of that era, Alain Prost. etc.
  He is now (considered) one of the gurus of modern French frame-building."

"In a sense he was in the 80s and early 90s the "Bernard Carre" of his time. 
I bought a lot of his frames at the time he was the one of the chief builders 
- high end models - for Geliano/Jean Marie Duret."

Norris Lockley on the Classic rendezvous e-mail list