French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
The DOCUMENTS series returns with a new item. Today we feature a presentation folder containing the citation commemorating the 1st Battalion 2e REI, and one of the last hard-fought actions of the Rif War in Morocco: the battle for Djebel Iskritten in May 1926.
Read moreDOCUMENTS: 1926 Citation of the 1st Battalion, 2e REI
On September 12, 2026, the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI) celebrated Fourragère Day, its regimental day, in Kourou, French Guiana. The day honors the history and sacrifices of the regiment and of its predecessor, the Foreign Legion Marching Regiment (RMLE, 1915–1920). Usually held on September 14, the date was moved this year because the regiment is currently committed to protecting the Guiana Space Center.
On Wednesday evening, September 2, 2026, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) commemorated the 123rd anniversary of the Battle of El Moungar, the 1903 desert engagement whose date became the regiment’s main holiday. After last year’s ceremony at the regimental barracks in Nîmes, southern France, the event returned to the Roman amphitheater (Arena) in the center of the city, built in the first century AD and still in use today.
At the end of August 2026, the 2nd Company of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) wrapped up a four-month deployment to Martinique, a French overseas region in the Caribbean, and traded the tropics for the high mountains of southeastern France, where the regiment is garrisoned at Saint-Christol. The company had arrived on the island in late April.
As we reported earlier, the French Foreign Legion went through a whole series of changes of command this summer, with several of its regiments getting new commanding officers. One of them was the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI), the only Legion unit permanently stationed in South America. On July 23, 2026, Colonel Grossin handed over command of the regiment to Colonel Gauzence de Lastours at a ceremony held at its home base in Kourou, French Guiana, a French overseas department on the northeastern coast of the continent.
In summer 2026, the French Foreign Legion saw five changes of command at the regimental level, reflecting the French Army’s regular two-year command rotation cycle. These changes affected units stationed in metropolitan France and overseas, including some of the Legion’s most prominent operational formations.
Read moreForeign Legion: 2026 Changes of Command in Five Regiments
On August 1, 2026, Brigadier General Christophe Passerat de La Chapelle took officially command of the French Foreign Legion and became the new Père Légion, or “Father of the Legion.” He succeeded Major General Cyrille Youchtchenko, who had led the elite corps for the past three years.
Summer is traditionally a quiet season for Legion news, but a nice photo slideshow is well worth a look while things wind down. Posted on YouTube by an Italian former legionnaire, the video takes viewers through his five years of service in the French Foreign Legion, from August 1987 to August 1992, most of it spent with the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP).
Read moreAn Italian Legionnaire’s Photo Journey Through the Legion, 1987–1992
On July 19, 2026, the French Foreign Legion held a White Kepi Ceremony (Remise des Képis blancs) on the ramparts of the historic port city of Saint-Malo, in Brittany, a historical region in the north-west of France. During the ceremony, forty recruits from the 3rd Platoon, 1st Company of Enlisted Volunteers of the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE) — the Legion’s training regiment — donned the white kepi for the first time and took the Legion’s traditional oath to serve France “with honor and fidelity.”
July 14 marks France’s national holiday, Bastille Day. Beyond the main military parade in Paris, where the French Foreign Legion was represented once again this year, Legion units also take part in local celebrations held across the country and in France’s overseas territories.
In early July 2026, a French Foreign Legion sergeant serving with the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) died during a training course in the Alps. He was 32 years old.