Interesting stuff. "Armurerie" is one of my favorite words in French, if you want to practice pronouncing your French R.

3 piece forend. That gun resembles both Merkels and some OU's that were made in Belgium. Back in the 30's, Abercrombie & Fitch sold similar Belgian-made OU's under their own name. You don't run into French-made OU's all that often. The famous one, of course, is the Petrik--which Remington pretty much copied for their Model 32. Then copied by Krieghoff.