Any help with this one is appreciated.
It should be posted in catch of the day, because it was free, but i wanted some feedback towards it's year.

The Lyotard pedals would put it roughly somewhere between 1963 & 1985. I'm almost as interested as you to find out, so I'll bite my tongue from here out.

It screams early 70s to me, with the cottered cranks and foil decals. Or maybe it just whispers and my hearing aid is turned too far up.

I concur with Poguemahone (as usual). The decals indicate pre-1975, even though the seat tube decal is missing. The Dia-Compe (and SunTour?) components seem a bit odd for this era, though they did use them in the late 1970s. However, based on the seat tube marks, it looks like the front derailleur may be a replacement.

I have Dia Compes on my '72 Schwinn...

How about frame material?
Also, in these pics there is the custom made sticker? Are they all "custom" made( like a selling point?)
And yes tmar suntour diacompe, but simplex stem shifters, simplex front skewer <-spelling? and wienman rear? which one is the original? (wienman hubs laced to rigida 27's)
Where should i be looking for serial #s? headtube?
-Steve

The Simplex stem shifters place the bike around 1973 or so; that assumes they are original equipment. I'd narrow it down to 73-75 on a semi-edumacated geuss. Maybe a bit later, but not much. The bike is roughly analagous to a UO/AO8, with cottered crank and no integral derailleur hanger. May have steel rims, too; I'd check with a magnet and switch them to alloy if you intend to ride this bike. As T-Mar said, some of the components may be replacements; the suntour front mechs were a common replacement for the Simplex ones, which reportedly have a tendency to break. I would wager the bike frame is straight guage steel. Nothing terrribly special, but the French did a nice job with keeping weight down on their frames; I was reading a thread on the fixie forum the other day on the weight of bikes, and was pleasantly surprised to realize my beat up UO8 fixie is actually lighter than most of the modern stuff. Even at 63cm.

The lone Gitane I have, which is either a Super Corsa or a Tour de France or some other higher end model (I haven't figured it out yet as all the decals are gone) has the serial number on the underside of the bottom bracket shell. I have no idea how to decipher these. I really need to investigate my gitane more and figure out just what it is. Right now I'm fascinated with the Bridgestone I just found, so it may be a while.

If the serial number is not under the bottom bracket as Poguemahone suggests, try the left rear dropout. I seem to recall them being stamped there on the lower models during this era. There should be two groups of numbers. The first group will have four numbers. The second group should have three numberts and is usually stamped at right angles to the first group.

Given the extra component info, I'm tempted to go out on a limb and declare it a 1974 Gran Sport. This model had down tube shifters in 1973 and the foil decals had disappeared in 1975. As Poguemahone states the bicycle was equivalent to Peugeot A08/U08. Hubs with wing nuts were standard, but $5.00 extra got you quick release skewers. The skewers were typically Simplex, but due to the shortages being experienced at the time, other makes were not uncommon.

The numbers on the lower left - 122 then a 56, at angle to the 122. there maybe a number before the 122, but the wheel may have rubbed off the paint (maybe closer inspection)

This bike looks very familiar. I bought a Gitane Grand Sport Deluxe with my High School graduation money in 1973. The frame, decals and blue color are the same as my bike, as is the plastic spoke protector. I recall a non-descript stem and steel bars, Mafac Racer brakes, Normandy high flange hubs, and Rigida steel rims. The bike had Suntour derailers and a Regina freewheel. I changed a lot of the components over the years before selling it in 88 or 89. I still have the Nervar crankset from the bike!

Gitane i got is a Tour de France with wing nuts she a girl but i like her