A Brief History of the Marque
The Siemm company presented their first bicycles at the Paris Salon in 1893 which were advertised as Métropole Acatene because of the lack of drive chain (chaîne d'entraînement).
In 1899 built tricycles with De Dion-Bouton engines which were also marketed as Acatene, and in 1902 advertised a cardan motorcycle built by Chapelle.
Metropole was listed in 1912 as the parent company of both Liberator and Perfecta.
The company continued, with numerous changes of ownership and location, through to the 1940s and 50s when they built mopeds and autocycles, some of which were supplied by H Errard of St Etienne. In 1955 they joined the Cocymo group.
La Métropole Mopeds and lightweights built (or marketed) from 1950 to 1959 had engines of 48cc to 125cc from Mistral, Vap, Sachs, Ydral, Lavalette, Itom and others.
Sources: Bourdache (p446), Motos dans la Loire, et al.
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