I am going to come right out and say it I am a newbie to restoring bikes and I have been pulling my hair out for the last few days trying to figure out what I have and wondering if I have just created a big headache for myself. Any help will be very much appreciated.

So I picked up a Gitane frame from re-sale shop here in town, paid $20 for it. I know vintage French bikes can be a PITA to restore and I was hoping that the bottom bracket wasn't shot. Well of course I take it home strip off the parts to find that yes indeed the bb is shot and moves a lot. I have two major problems. Number 1 being I have no idea what model I am working with as I can find no identifying markings on the frame and haven't come across pictures of my decal set on other bikes on the web. Second is obviously not knowing what kind of bb I am dealing with, crossing my fingers that it is standard british threading...

Does anyone know what kind of mess I have got myself into?!

imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer