French TextAlmost 150 years ago, the very first motorbike in the world, the steam-driven Perreaux motorbike, made its debut on the paving stones of the Porte Maillot in Paris. After that, hundreds of different brands of motorbikes sprang up in the vast former Department of the Seine: almost 600 of them!Not all of the names have the same renown or the same importance: some like de Dion & Bouton, Contal, Gnôme et Rhône, Griffon, Jonghi, Motobécane or Vélosolex became world famous, either because they were mass-produced or through the exploits of famous sportsmen. Of the others, only one, two or ten bikes were built and today they’ve been totally forgotten except by the author.The book is in principle a dictionary but also a tribute to the Department of the Seine which bubbled with activity; it is also an exceptional book of pictures. Volume 1 alone assembles almost one thousand, of which the large majority are period pictures.Finally this book is a tribute to those genial inventors at the end of the 19th Century, to the great industrialists of the twenties, thirties and fifties, to the racing bike craftsmen of the seventies and eighties