Yesterday, during my lunch brake, I stopped by my local bike shop to pick up my newly purchased TA mini rack. As I was there, I got to talking to the owner of the shop and mentioned to him that I was looking to get some TA or Stronglight cranks for my Falcon frame that I was building up. Gordon then remarked that my choice of components was "interesting". Gordon has been in the business for more then 30 years and he specializes in vintage bikes so I take him as somewhat of an authority on the subject. Unfortunately we were not able to talk a bit more on the subject as I had to get back to work. But I did get the feeling that he thought my choice of cranks was not "proper" for the frame that I had.

So my question is, what is the typical norm when putting together a vintage bike? In my mind it goes a bit like this (assuming frame and components are of ballpark eras)

Japanese Frame + Japanese or Italian Components

English Frame + French or British Components

French Frame + French Components

Italian Frame + Italian Components

Of course I understand that there really is no "proper" way to set up a bike but what do you guys think? Does component origin really matter?