Mercier Mystery

I picked up this interesting French bike from "the List" today, I've determined it to be a Mercier, possibly a Mercier 100 from the late sixties.  The former owner said he rode this bike to the Yosemite Valley from Sacramento in 1976, and added the small Mafac rack for easy access to six packs of beer.... needless to say it's led quite a life.

One selling point, according to the posting, was these "Eclair" cranks:

Sometimes it's all in the details:

In the end I think the bike was a good buy, I'll use the Mafac brakes to replace my not-so-nice pair and pass the other parts on to the vintage french bike enthusiasts and break even at least.