Franco-US cohabitation at Chateauroux – archive, 28 April 1966

28 April 1966 As the Americans prepare to leave their airbase in central France, Peter Lennon examines the influence the two communities have had on each other

As soon as the French became indifferent to the joys of chewing gum, and independent of the need for American cigarettes, whitewashed signs began to be scrawled on the walls of Paris: US GO HOME.

The story goes that one of these declarations, still to be seen near the US base at Chateauroux, was traced in a trembling hand by a nocturnal chauvinist who suddenly found himself joined by a six-foot-two air force sergeant who amiably supervised the spelling.