Hello!
I'm sorry, but my French is not up to it, so I'll have to post this in English.
I lived in Lamorteau from 1965 to 1967, I was 8 years old when we moved to Germany in 1967. I lived in three different houses in Lamorteau, but I only have memories of the last two.
The second house was a low (bungalow-style) house. I *think* it was on Rue de Regnie (I'm not sure about the spelling), around the corner on the east side. We were flooded out of that house when the river flowed over the banks in the spring. That was maybe the spring of '67 or maybe '66. My brother Alan and I used to play with the children of the landlord that owned the house. One day, my brother (who was 2 or 3 years old, had his head split open when one of the kids threw a rock and hit him in the head. I have a photo somewhere of me with my new bicycle on Christmas day posing in front of the house.
After we were flooded out, we lived for a few days in a trailer/camper on the base in Marville, then moved into another house in Lamorteau. This house was on the north side of the street that leads to a nearby village named Harncourt (sp?). It was a two or three story building. The kitchen door opened out on a barn-like structure in the back. MY father once told me that they found a skeleton, wired together, hanging on the back of that door, the first time they opened it. They eventually learned that the skeleton was the son or brother of the old lady that owned the house, who was killed in either WW I or WW II. THe old lady was 'shell-shocked', or mentally damaged from one of the wars. She used to sit in front of that house all day long, selling oranges. She scared me just to look at here, so I don't think I ever spoke to her.
I've looked through the pictures on this web site, and I think I see that old house there.
Another thing I remember is going up the street, up the hill to buy bread for my mother. There was a garage on the hill on the way to the bakery. This would be the hill that lead up to the big road that I sued to go on to get to the train station. We used to go the train station to catch the bus to school in Marville. One day coming back from school, I got confused, got on the wrong bus, and ended up in Virton ! The driver was nice enough to drive me all the way back to the Air Force base in Marville, then the school contacted my father. I had my first taste of White Chocolate at that train station, waiting to go to school.
I also remember after we were flooded out of our house, that they dredged up the river to stop it from overflowing again. There was a big pile of stinking mud, with bullets, rifles, helmets and all sorts of military weaponry buried in the mud.
I also remember one night being chased by a 'ghost' down the road from Harncourt and across the bridge. My mother said she could hear me screaming for a good five minutes before I ran up the road to the house. It turns out that the ghost was a great big owl, that screached--it sounded like a demon!
Anyway, that's Lamorteau through this Canadian's eyes. Thank you for creating this website !
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