Hi Ulrich,
I am jealous of your collection of Normandie/Lafayette models but I note that there is an error in the captions of the photographs that were sent to you by Alain Picouet. The correct ordering of the models from left to right should be that the bare metal casting is the CM model, the middle, resin casting is the Quadrant model and the right hand model is the Mercator. Many years ago, Alain was asked on this Board whether he preferred the CM or Mercator model and he went with Mercator because of the fuller curve at the stern. You can see that the Quadrant model has a stern more similar to the model on the right, ie the Mercator Model. I own the Mercator brass master model and I have recently cast one-piece polyurethane resin models from it. The Mercator model is Normandie as built, the CM is Normandie after the refit with the enclosed buffet restaurant towards the stern that you can see on the CM casting. CM has also used his castings to make a model of Lafayette and you can see that the Quadrant Lafayette also has an enclosed buffet restaurant behind the rear funnel.
There is another point to note about these models: the Mercator has generic plastic masts and the foremast is incorrect; the CM casting does not have masts but decorated samples have a foremast which has a lookout and cross-yards but is too short. The Quadrant casting is correct.