sykerocker 

First off, you said "Racer" brakes. Not necessarily Mafac Racer brakes (I'll have to shoot a picture or two later today to show the difference). If the word Racer is engraved in the alloy, they're Mafac's. If it's on a red background, they're a copy of the Mafac brake, which usually showed up on cheap bike boom 10-speeds. Not that they're bad brakes. A set came on my Magneet (minus good levers) so I replaced them with Weinmanns, may switch back yet. They do stop well.

French bikes in general: You'll usually run into two difficulties, headset threading (if the headset is together and functioning, don't worry about it, how often do we ever replace headsets?), and bottom bracket threading (which can be stepped around by just keeping the original cups should you ever decide to upgrade the crankset).

I've always considered bicycles to be the height of French technological perfection of, one of the few things they do as well as express their national ego and attitude. Invariably, no matter what price range, you'll find yourself with a bike that that been well constructed although the fit and finish are typical of what you'd expect from a unionized worker on the day before the World Cup final, a paint job that is thin and shoddy but still looks surprisingly good - at least from a foot away, and a ride quality that is usually just shy of absoutely delightful.

At present I've got seven bikes in the garage - and only one French, a '71 Gitane Tour de France. Even though it's the second newest bike in my collection (I built it last year while watching the '06 Tour, finished the main assembly during stage 17), it has the highest mileage (954.20) of any of them. And I expect to pass the 1000 mile mark before this Saturday's London time trial.

I think that's about as good an explanation of a French bike that you can get - no matter how low in the range it is, fix it up and enjoy it. You will. Quick, cheap upgrade: Find a second-hand set of 27" alloy-rimmed wheels, go to high pressure 27x1 tyres (or, if you really adventurous, try a set of 700c tubular wheels), and you'll be amazed at the difference in performance and handling. And a second-hand set of wheels won't set you back all that much. The SunTour RD should serve you just fine, the Simplex FD is OK although finding a used SunTour front will be better, and definitely look for a set of SunTour levers (preferably the rachet/friction ones). They'll make shifting much easier - those Simplex lever are probably the most excreable component on the bike.