couldnt let this one go without comment, althought I dont have an answer. It has always been my favorite typeface, full of energy, tension, beauty, Joie de vivre, and a certain je ne sais quoi!

two articles with some insights.
http://typofonderie.com/gazette/post/roger-excoffon-a-part-of-the-mythol...

http://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/zizou/

Ryan, why do you think it's amazing? The question as it stands somehow almost doesn't do justice to the answer.

Not to be a smartass, but if I knew I wouldn't be asking. I've been trying to figure out what takes a typeface from competent to amazing for a while now. What is that thing?

In case you read French, David Rault makes a few comments on antique olive nord in his book Guide pratique de choix typographique; click on the link "Extraits du livre".

And his "Roger Excoffon - le gentleman de la typographie" is bilingual (thanks to yours truly :-). But if you're really into the subject, "Excoffon et la fonderie Olive" is a must too.

hhp

Le style, c’est l’homme.

At the start of my career, I used Antique Olive a lot (though not the elephantine Nord weight). I even used transfer lettering to set my second freelance business card in Antique Olive.
It was the Age of Helvetica, and the popular sans-serifs were all monoline, and therefore tiresome to read at small sizes and too bland to attract attention at display sizes. Optima was a nice alternative, but even at its heaviest weight, Optima was just too damn tasteful.
Then I discovered Antique Olive. It had lots of punch, and was full of the little eccentricities that other sans-serifs lacked: The vertical cutoffs on the C, G, and S; the unexpectedly square bowls on the P and R; and the way the curved strokes taper when joining the straight strokes on a, b,d, g, h, m, n, p, q, r, and u.
That's what amazed me as a newbie. Some of my early font faves kind of embarrass me now, but I'm still a big fan of Antique Olive.

Excoffon et la fonderie Olive

Is this one available in English.

Yes, it's also bilingual. And the translation is almost as good. :->

hhp

Here is an extract (pdf)

hrmmmmm.... $450 on Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keyw...

On the editor's site, it is 47 euros.

Thanks, Michel. Wonder if they ship to the US?

If you put the book in your cart and then try ordering, USA is listed as this grab shows: