Military Tuesday: French Foreign Legion Meta Post

I realised the other day that I have a lot of French Foreign Legion posts scattered about. Since one can never have enough of the FLL, I am writing a meta post, that pulls them all together. But before I do that, let me ask you a question: how many legionnaires fit into a portaloo? [...]

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French Foreign Legion: Sexy Legionnaires

Charlie Dave on Flickr has an absolutely excellent set of photos of soldiers. I am particularly enamoured with his series of Legionnaires (no surprise there, if you’ve read my Code of Honour …) and assorted other French men in uniform. Those will come later, and oh lala, I can tell you, there is something exceedingly [...]

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Movie Review: Le Clan

Le Clan (2004) by Gaël Morel.
What is it with French films?
They are visually utterly stunning, intriguing (it does help the intrigue to watch a film in French while one’s French is so rusty it might only be enough to buy a croissant and a cafe au lait) incredibly artistic and deadly … boring.
Well, no, that [...]

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Life after Code of Honour – snippets of Joe and Roux

No matter how often I’ve beaten the drum for the “I Do” anthology and all of its proceedings going to Lambda Legal to fight Prop 8, I happily beat it again. Consider this the drum-salute.
As you all know, I have the French Foreign Legion Code of Honour short story about the two legionnaires, legionnaire Joe [...]

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“I Do” Anthology Review – and Code of Honour

There have been a few more reviews lately, and it is wonderful to have so many people read the anthology and write about it.
The latest one that I came across is on Amazon.
The review is by Amos Lassen and here is an excerpt of what the reviewer says about Code of Honour:
Undoubtedly the best story [...]

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“Code of Honour” reviews

Code of Honour received three great reviews. Indie’s is fascinating – and I say fascinating, because it made me think about the story and gave me insights into the characters that I hadn’t had before. I’m the author, but that doesn’t mean that I know everything – far from it. It is often the readers, [...]

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French Foreign Legion Recruitment Video

If you really think that this whole military malarkey is all “cool” and you don’t know what else to do with your life and your own country’s Forces don’t appeal to you – or don’t want you, but not for reasons that would exclude you from the FLL, and you believe you are fit enough [...]

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“Code of Honour” music to Joe dancing on the table in Paris

You know when Joe, our wee legionnaire, from Code of Honour dances shirtless on the table in the Quartier Marais, during the Bal de Pompiers? This is the music he is dancing to (Rhythm is a Dancer, by Snap, 1992)

he’s dancing with a stripping fire-fighter, and I have a post with [...]

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“I Do” Anthology – Out Now!

I Do – an anthology in support of marriage equality
Code of Honour by Marquesate – French Foreign Legion
Code [...]

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Short Story Announcement – French Foreign Legion “Code of Honour”

Photo © its respective owner. Without permission.
Well, well, well, all this talk about the French Foreign legion … it did have to end up in me writing a story, didn’t it? I wrote a French Foreign Legion short story (not *that* short, actually, around 9.5k) for a print anthology that will be published by MLR [...]

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French Foreign Legion – Joining Up

Photo © copyright its owner. Without permission.
The stages of joining the French Foreign Legion:

Age restriction: between 18 and 40 to join
Potential recruits must have no health problems
Potential recruits cannot be wanted criminals in their country
All potential recruits must pass the sport test
Rudimentary pee test for drugs
Dental and full chest x-rays in the major military [...]

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French Foreign Legion: Daily Schedule

Photo © copyright its owner. Without permission.
One never knows when this particular bit of information might come in handy, aye?
Daily Schedule
6:00 AM – Wake up, roll call
6:30 AM – Cleaning details
7:00 AM – Rassamblement: start of the work day. Activities vary, such as going for a run, swimming, rope climbing or skip the workout for [...]

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French Foreign Legion: Ranks

Photo © copyright its owner, without permission.
Did I tell you that I just wrote a Legionnaire story? Did I? Didn’t I? Well, I did. More soon. For now, have a list of the ranks in the legion – one never knows what that might be useful for, aye?
NCOs (non commissioned)

Engage Volontaire
Legionnaire
Premiere Classe Legionaire
Caporal
Caporal [...]

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The Legionnaire’s Code of Honour

Photo © copyright its owner, without permission.
1. Legionnaire : you are a volunteer serving France faithfully and with honor.
2. Every Legionnaire is your brother-at-arms, irrespective of his nationality, race or creed. You will demonstrate this by an unwavering and straight forward solidarity which must always bind together members of the same family.
3. Respectful of the [...]

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Légion étrangère: Soldiers and Regiments of the French Foreign Legion

I thought it would be of interest to have a look at the regiments of the French Foreign Legion.

Photo of the FLL at Bastille Day © copyright Hugo Haas, without permission.
There are 10 regiments in the French Foreign Legion and about 7500 soldiers:

1 RE – Stationed in Aubagne, the headquarters of the Legion
1 REC – [...]

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