I believe that Branford Bike's website has explicatory info on the thin and thick cups, and what spindles go with them.
I now have the dreaded and probably terminal French variant of the bike disease. A couple months ago, I bought a set of Shimano 600 french-threaded BB cups, just because I'd never seen such a thing, and thought I might never again! And just a few days ago did a BIN for a 50-year-old J.B. Janisson French threaded headset for the same reason.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN:IT&ih=011