Historically, Classical Novae (CNe) have been considered as a sub-class of Cataclysmic Variables (CVs). Yet it is now clear that a CN explosion is an event in the lifetime of a CV.
In this talk, I compare the current knowledge on CN progenitors with the larger population of CVs, with particular emphasis on their distances, in the context of the current and future projects like Gaia or LSST}.