Officially, there are no Americans in the French Foreign Legion—la Légion Etrangère—that legendary volunteer combat assault group comprised of 9000 men from 150 countries, each man with a past more mysterious, more shadowy, more enigmatic than the next. Americans aren’t typically allowed to fight under the flag of another country. So no Americans—officially. Yet among the legionnaires, there are some men with distinctly American accents who are said to be from Micronesia. So said General Alain Lardet, commander of the Foreign Legion, when I inquired over a glass of Légion Etrangère Côtes de Provence red wine at the Invalides.

You don’t have the security clearance for me to relate the full details of our conversation—kidding—but I am authorized to write that among the highly trained combatants of the Foreign Legion, 64 men also have musical talent. And you—without having to declare that you hail from Micronesia—can enlist as a spectator to see and hear them perform at the Legion’s charity concert that will take place on June 18 at the Paris concert hall L’Olympia.

The Foreign Legion holds a unique place within France’s national and military heritage due to both the reality and the fantasy of the corps. The reality itself is always clouded in an air of mystery about these men, with their white kepis and their world full of accents, who have made a 5+-year commitment to fight for France. That then opens the doors to the fantasy of the larger-then-life characters presented in French and foreign film, books and song, of men at once hardened, seductive, unfathomable, honorable and resolute. What intrigues the public about the Foreign Legion, both as reality and as fantasy, is the opportunity that the Legion offers men to leave behind their past.

Leaving behind the past is only the first part of the equation, as engagement in the Foreign Legion initiates a process of renewing and redirecting oneself with “honor and fidelity,” the watchwords of a legionnaire’s commitment. “That’s the secret of the Legion,” said General Lardet, “restarting, rebooting, getting back on one’s feet.” The Legion’s motto: Legio patria nostra—the Legion is our fatherland.

Listening to General Lardet speak of his relationship with the men under his responsibility is like hearing a firm and caring father speak of his children, treating them with “authority and goodwill because the legionnaire needs both.”

“[Bringing together] 150 nationalities and mentalities and cultures that are foreign to each other,” he said, “requires solidarity in order to function. The Legion’s solidarity is nearly the motor of its operational capacity. Our institution depends on a contract between a foreigner who signs a voluntary commitment to France and the Legion that receives him and provides an equally strong commitment. If you serve the Foreign Legion’s code of honor, the Foreign Legion will support you regardless of what happens.”

While the Foreign Legion is financed by the French Army, funding for additional social and welfare assistance, such as caring for the orphaned children of deceased legionnaires, reuniting families, assisting former legionnaires, etc., requires outside support and donations. Recently, that additional funding has been used to bring 40 families (about 100 people) of Ukrainian legionnaires to France from the war zones in their country. (Because of their commitment to France, Ukrainian legionnaires are not allowed to join their national army in fighting against Russia.)

The June 18 program

While the June 18 concert in Paris and other events held by the Foreign Legion throughout the year, help maintain public awareness of this unique institution, the upcoming concert in particular also serves as a fundraiser for the Legion’s social and welfare assistance project for current and retired legionnaires and their families.

The 2-hour concert will be performed twice on June 18. The first performance, at 2PM, is largely intended for the general public, though a group of non-participating legionnaires will also be in attendance. At the second performance, at 6PM, sponsors, donors, honored and official guests, and hundreds of legionnaires will comprise the bulk of the audience, however seating for the general public is also available. That concert will be followed by an invitation-only party at the Château de Vincennes of singing, burgers and beer (“the fundamentals at the Legion,” according to Lardet), under the culinary baton of stellar chef Thierry Marx.

Titled “Monsieur Legionnaire,” the June 18 program musically retraces the path of the legionnaire through music and song, percussion and chant. Various pieces express the legionnaire’s sense of searching, volunteering and commitment, military and technical training, the esprit de corps, combat operations, nostalgia for the country left behind, victory in combat, the wounded, R&R, and more. Along with legionnaire marches and chants, homage is paid to Edith Piaf for her well-known affection for the Legion and its legionnaires. Among the songs most identified with Piaf is Mon légionnaire, which includes the line “Il était mince, il était beau, il sentait bon le sable chaud, mon légionnaire,” a line that is nearly as famous in France as “Non, rien de rien, non, je ne regrette rien” from Non, je ne regrette rien, itself a song that the Legion has since taken on as something of a theme song of their own. A nod is also given in the program to the communion between the legionnaires and underdog cross-cultural Americana with themes from “Dancing with Wolves” and “Rocky.” There’s even a bit of rap, performed by a Mongolian legionnaire, to show that these young men are of their times.

The concert will be led by Senior Officer (hors classe) Emile Lardeux, the Legion’s musical director. Lardeux said that have adequate musicians is always uncertain since the Foreign Legion doesn’t recruit soldiers for their musical abilities. If a legionnaire is a musician, he can be invited to join the band, and even get special physical training as you can see in this video of a legionnaire who is both a combatant and a tuba player. If a man played an instrument, or was even a professional musician, in his pre-legionnaire life, he isn’t required to play in the Legion. Like any other aspect of his former life, Lardet noted, a legionnaire has a right to leave it behind.

The Foreign Legion always has a presence among the French military corps to parade down the Champs-Elysees toward the presidential tribune during the annual 14th of July Parade in Paris, as can be seen here.

But performing at the 1985-seat concert hall L’Olympia represents a different kind of badge of honor. L’Olympia, located between the Garnier Opera and the Madeleine, is a mythical venue for national and international performers. Created in 1893 as a music hall, used as a cinema in the 1930s and 1940s, it has been a premier concert hall for popular artists since 1954. Performing at L’Olympia and seeing one’s name in red neon on the marquee is a consecration for many pop performers. Lardeux himself is starstruck at the possibility of conducting his orchestra there. Set to retire this summer, he said that along with leading the Legion on a sixteenth march down the Champs-Elysées at this year’s 14th of July parade, “performing at L’Olympia is a beautiful way to end my career with the Legion.” The French-born maestro will then hand the baton to Captain Vladimir Khourda, born in Ukraine, trained in Russia, legionnaire since 1999, now with French citizenship.

How to join the French Foreign Legion

Created in 1831 initially to assist in the French conquest of Algeria, the Foreign Legion has since participated in French actions around the world: Crimea (1854-1855), Italy (1859), Mexico (1863-1867), the Franco-Prussian War, the First World War, the Second World War, Indochina (1946-1954), Algeria (1954-1962), and since then in war- and conflict-zones as diverse as Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali and the Ivory Coast, among others, as well as for anti-terrorist patrol missions in France. The current corps of about 9000 men represents 11% of France’s Operational Land Force. The Foreign Legion is headquartered near Marseille, in Aubagne, and has based spread throughout southern France. The Musée de la Légion Etrangère in Aubagne is open to the general public.

Men can apply to join the French Foreign Legion if over 17½ years old and under 39½ years old on the day they present themselves to the information desk. (Those under 18 require parental authorization.) No school diploma is required, though the applicant must at a minimum know how to read and write in his native language. Only 20% of applicants are finally integrated into the Legion. A legionnaire signs up under his true or declared identity for an initial engagement of five years. He then lives in the military compound, as a single person, at a starting salary of 1380€ net per month. When not busy on active mission, his weekends are free and he additionally has 45 vacation days per year. After three years of service a legionnaire can request French citizenship. After the initial tour of duty, reengagement in the Legion is possible for successive durations of from six months to five years. After five years of service a legionnaire can bring his family to France.

If tempted to join—whether you’re from Micronesia or elsewhere—you’ll find full recruitment information here.

If in a 2-hour concert rather than a 5-year engagement, see here to reserve to see the Foreign Legion at L’Olympia on June 18, 2023. Two shows, beginning at 2PM and 6PM. Tickets 49-99€.

You can follow the musical corps of the Foreign Legion on their Facebook page here.

© 2023, Gary Lee Kraut

The post How to Join the French Foreign Legion (in Music and Song) appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

For centuries until the French Revolution, the extension and beautification of Paris was largely a royal affair. Among the last major urban developments in the capital before titles and heads would fall was Place Louis XV, now called Place de la Concorde, Paris’s largest square, a nearly 20-acre zone between the Tuileries Garden and the Champs-Elysées.

In 1793, both Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette would know the sharp edge of the guillotine on the square (renamed Place de la Révolution for the occasion), but 30 years earlier the Sixteenth’s predecessor and grandfather, Louis XV, arrived of his own free will to bask in royal veneration as he inaugurated a bronze equestrian statue in his honor. Facing the splendid royal city with calm strength and crowned with laurel leaves, the statue was the focal point around which western Paris would develop, beginning with this very square where two monumental palaces were then under construction.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the star architect of the day, had been commissioned to create identical Neoclassical palaces to adorn the northern flank of the new square. These enormously expensive buildings, called hôtels in French, were not exactly purpose-built, beyond the purpose of creating an impressive backdrop for the aforesaid statue. (In French, a hôtel, in addition to designating a place of lodging, refers to a town house or city mansion or administrative building.)

The western building became a private residence. It is now partly occupied by the luxury hotel Le Crillon and the Automobile Club of France. Meanwhile, the eastern building was consigned in 1765 to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, an institution tasked with furnishing and maintaining the furnishings of royal palaces (Versailles, Compiègne, Fontainebleau, Rambouillet, Saint-Germain-en-Laye and others.) Think of it as the royal furniture storehouse, though it stored and ordered more than furniture. From beds and chairs to bronze clock, crown jewels, fancy firearms and linens, the Garde-Meuble oversaw the ordering and storage of all manner of decorative elements. Its head administrator or intendant was in contact with the major craftsmen and designers of the era, along with a substantial budget. (The Garde-Meuble is ancestor to the Mobilier National, which currently maintains and restores furnishings, ancient and contemporary, for official use by the State.)

Alas, it wasn’t exactly a secure location for national treasures: revolutionaries raided the royal arms collections on July 13, 1789 before heading to the Bastille the following day, and the crown jewels were stolen in 1792. But eventually there was enough calm in the air to optimistically rebaptize the square on which it stood Place de la Concorde.

The French Naval Command began to use a portion of the Garde-Meuble during the Revolution, and by the of the 18th century it had taken over the entire premises, leading the building to be called Hôtel de la Marine. The Navy continued to occupy the building until 2015, when the military consolidated its branches in a new location in southern Paris. The destiny of the Hôtel de la Marine was then up for grabs.

There was no shortage of ideas on how to re-purpose this glorious chunk of central Paris real estate. What re-opened in June 2021, after four years of renovation, is a hybrid solution: a museum dedicated to the building’s first mission as the royal garde-meuble and its second as navy headquarters; an upscale café; a formal restaurant; a giftshop; an art gallery; the headquarters for two foundations, and several floors of co-working rental space.

Despite its name, the museum in the Hôtel de la Marine is not a pendant to the Museum of the Army at the Invalides. While there are traces of the naval presence—a gallery of “war ports” endowed by Napoleon III, the anchor motifs on ceiling fixtures—along with a tactile display telling about famous French marine officers and explorers, the dozen rooms, large and small, that can be visited largely refer to the building’s initial function as a décor storehouse.

There were only two intendants of the Garde-Meuble over the Louis XV-Louis XVI period that the institution was headquartered here: the intellectual, libertine Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu (from 1772 to 1784) and the more conventional and less imaginative Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville-d’Avray (from 1784 to 1789), the latter killed during the Revolution. Both left their mark on their private apartments, which were royally furnished and located above the ground-floor storerooms. Painstakingly restored, the human-size living space and offices occupied by these two upper-management bureaucrats are the primary rooms that one visits here while wearing a well-fitting headset through which you learn about their lives and times, major historical events and especially the décor.

Visitors can crab-walk through the narrow, mirrored love-nest created by Fontanieu (though the erotica was later replaced with playful cherubs) and the airy, ostentatious bedrooms later created for Ville-d’Avray and his wife. Electric “candlelight” adds to the charm of these rooms, though the electric cords drooping from the faux candles refutes some of that charm.

The necessary and instructive audio tour is upbeat enough to engage the listener, while the rooms themselves are presented as though still occupied: the dining room table is littered with oyster shells, as it would be after an intimate, upper-class dinner; the gaming tables are cluttered with cards and betting tokens, and the office desks are swamped by paperwork, ledgers and teacups. Beyond the living quarters, the eye is further treated to the gilt decorative work and large chandeliers of galleries subsequently used as ballrooms by Napoleon I, Charles X and Napoleon III, given life during the tour through video recreations of dances past.

This slice-of-life scenery is possible only after years of treasure hunts for authentic furnishings and period fabrics. Curators and private donors have scooped up past inventory at private auctions. The dining room furniture appropriated by former president Giscard d’Estaing has been returned from the Elysée Palace by President Emmanuel Macron. Visitors from Boston may recognize the Ville-d’Avray bedroom furniture since some of the original furnishings are now in their local museum. WWII buffs will note in that bedroom the hole in the inner shutter that was made by the German occupiers (the German Navy commandeered the building from 1940 to 1944) to watch out for the arrival of liberating forces on Rue de Rivoli in August 1944.

Toward the end of the visit one steps out onto the terrace behind the building’s signature colonnade for a panoramic view of Place de la Concorde and monuments beyond it: the Grand Palais, the Eiffel Tower, the National Assembly, the dome of the Invalides, the greenery of the Tuileries Garden—a view that’s nearly worth the price of admission itself.

Because, yes, there is a cost to this decorative time travel: 13€ for the 45-minute Salon & Loggia tour (with headset) that gives access to the ceremonial rooms and the panoramic view or 17€ for a 90-minute Grand Tour (with headset) which additionally includes the living quarters and private offices, a dozen rooms in all. (Free for visitors under 25.) The indicated times are those of the full audio (available in English) but you aren’t required to stay in each room to examine each decorative item. Seventy minutes or so is a more likely time for the Grand Tour.

Given the choice, we suggest springing for the Grand Tour, in which you have a choice between the following themes: The Age of Enlightenment (i.e. the 18th century), Traveling through Time, and two Family themes, one for adults and one for children. Unless visiting with children (who may find the museum a yawn anyway) and unless you’re particularly interested in 18th history and decorative arts, choose Travelling through Time, which nevertheless gives plenty of information about the 18th century and the décor. Timed reservations are mandatory and help avoid over-crowding of the smaller rooms.

While the colonnade of the Hôtel de la Marine has for 250 years been part of the Parisian landscape, the possibility for the public to now go inside for a view of its splendor is a welcome addition to the city’s museumscape.

The caféscape of Paris also benefits from the opening of Café Lapérouse, named for an 18th-century marine officer and explorer (and a famous restaurant across the river). It’s a fine, chic and pricey port to weigh anchor at any time of day, whether for a morning croissant (3€) or a lobster salad sandwich (35€) or a croque-monsieur (24€) or a late afternoon drink. A ticket to the museum isn’t necessary to enter the café, the courtyard or the gift shop.

The formal restaurant, La Mimosa, directed by multi-starred chef Jean-François Piège, will open in September. According to advance press, it will have a Southern-French influence and France’s first devilled egg bar.

The State’s Centre des Monuments Nationaux, which operates the building, has also made a 20-year deal with the Qatari Al Thani family to present its art collection in the Hôtel de la Marine. The inaugural show will open in the fall.

Hôtel de la Marine, 2 place de la Concorde, 8th arrondissement. Metro: Concorde. Open daily 10:30 am – 7:00 pm; Fridays until 10 pm.

© 2021, Corinne LaBalme and Gary Lee Kraut.

The post Hôtel de la Marine: Glimpses of Decorative Splendor and Onto Paris’s Largest Square appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.