Patria Nostra

Nîmes, France

They are aged between 18 and 25, coming from all over the world and they choose to serve France. This photoreport takes place in Nîmes, in the 2nd Regiment of Foreign infantry I met during the Central African conflict. The confidence which was granted to me by the command of the regiment allowed me to integrate myself, with exclusive access, into the life of the Legionnaires in Nîmes. In the regiment during the daily routine, in the field during their hard integration training, or during festivals and ceremonies, I had the right to photograph, with the confidence and respect of the soldiers. The Foreign Legion appeared to me as an unconventional environment. Cut from the usual civil or military world, traditions are of the utmost importance. How, within a few months, young men, arriving from distant countries and speaking very little or no French at all, could achieve such a cohesion I had seen in the Central African Republic during Operation Sangaris? I partly found out how after I was granted to follow the integration training of new recruits. An exceptional privilege because, for a full month, men will be subjected to a very hard physical training where only cohesion will be able to keep them to high level to overcome the tests. Sleeping hours are short, interspersed with “on call” hours in the country. All the walking are long, for example the commando walking of 40 kilometers which first eight kilometers have to be covered by running, kits of twenty pounds on the back to simulate the exit of a danger zone. At the same time, the life of legionaries in “society” is highly regulated. It is impossible, after five years of service, to be able to leave without the prescribed uniform, it must be impeccably ironed so that the noncommissioned officer can inspect the recruits at the doors of the regiment. During the initial two months training, mobile phones are prohibited, including computers. Extremely rough isolation and training will allow these men to unite, to form a mass responding like a single soldier. Of course, as in all human society, certain characteristics emerge, so it is possible that certain rules may be overstepped, hidden phones, naps away from the prying eyes of the hierarchy, mockery of the chiefs. Thus the only rule and great tradition of the Foreign Legion will become the motto “Not seen, not caught”.