French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
As mentioned in the previous article, which dealt with the 2024 Bastille Day Parade in Paris, the legionnaires of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) participated in this traditional event. However, they commemorated the French national holiday also abroad.
Read more1er REC: 2024 Bastille Day in Ivory Coast and Bosnia and Herzegovina
On May 8, 2024, the French Foreign Legion units commemorated the 79th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. The end of the war came after the signing of the definitive overall surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies in Berlin. See some images from the 2024 Victory in Europe Day celebrations.
On April 30, 2024, the French Foreign Legion celebrated the 161st anniversary of the 1863 Battle of Camerone, an epic moment in its history. The celebrations were held across the regiments in France and abroad. See images.
In late February 2024, the 4th Company of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) left their garrison at Saint-Christol in southern France for Martinique, an overseas region of France in the eastern Caribbean Sea. See some images.
A platoon of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) of the French Foreign Legion is currently deployed to New Caledonia, a special overseas collectivity of France located east of Australia, in the Pacific Ocean.
As the 40th anniversary of the activation of the French Foreign Legion’s first engineer regiment approaches in early July, the Legion has recently released a new official video clip to introduce viewers to its combat engineers of the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) and the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG).
For the French Foreign Legion, seen as a traditional pro-Catholic institution in France (unlike the rest of the French Army), Christmas Eve marks the second most important holiday. To celebrate it, legionnaires in all units of the Foreign Legion – regardless of their origin and religious – create nativity scenes (crèches) every year and compete to see which one is the nicest and most original. The scenes can be small, static ones, or performed live with hand-made scenery. This long-standing Legion tradition is unique within the French Army. If you are interested, see some of the nativity scenes created by legionnaires in December 2023.
In early December 2023, French Foreign Legion combat engineers with the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) and the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) commemorated once again their patron, Saint Barbara (Sainte Barbe in French).
In most English-speaking countries, November 11 is known as Veterans Day or Remembrance Day, honoring military veterans and those who have died in the line of duty. In France, this day is still known as Armistice Day, in memory of the 1918 armistice signed between the Allies and Germany that ended World War I. Since 2012, all those who died for France have also been commemorated during Armistice Day. The French Foreign Legion participates annually in those ceremonies. See images.
In October 2023, legionnaires from the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) participate in a mountain warfare training exercise in California, United States.
In early June 2023, men from the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) started their four-month deployment to French Guiana, South America. They will reinforce French troops there.