Marville, France

The Fence

My family and I lived in Europe from November 1963 until July 1967 while I was serving with the RCAF. We first lived in Belgium, but in April of 1964 we moved to The Maple Leaf Trailer Park across the highway from the air base at Marville, France.

We purchased a mobile home that required renovating as the previous owner had allowed it to fall into disrepair during his ownership. My first task was leveling the unit, and installing adequate footings and skirting. I was able to borrow jacks from the air base and Friday after supper I began work.

On Sunday, Kevin Murphy, a man I had worked with in Trenton, Ontario arrived from Canada. He would be in Marville for three months with a transport squadron rotating our NATO troops. He offered to pass me the cement blocks as I operated the jacks to raise the trailer.

I required more cement blocks than the ten I had to work with as they sank out of sight in the soft ground when the weight of the mobile home was placed on them. I desperately required additional blocking if I was to complete the job before the jacks were returned later that evening.

A local French construction company that worked on the base had a storage facility close to the trailer park. Kevin and I drove there to borrow additional blocks. A low barbed wire fence surrounded their supply of building materials, including hundreds of cement blocks! A large sign with the company’s name stood in the middle of the compound with warnings that this was private property and nothing was to be removed without approval from the owners. I suggested that he should go over the fence and pass me as many blocks as I could safely carry in my car.

With his help I positioned the blocks under the trailer and we completed our job just as my wife announced supper. We sat around a small picnic table in our back yard and talked of our plans for the future. He spoke of his wife and family back in Canada, and how he was missing them already. Our civilian lives followed different paths but the friendship has remained cemented

During the second bottle of wine he asked me this question.

What does the sign mean in English that was on my side of the fence?

In English it means danger, minefield, I told him!

Whenever I see him he reminds me of that day.

Roger Cyr
July MM111