Portfolio

Foreign Legion

They arrive from dozens of countries with little more than a name — sometimes not even their own. At the Legion’s school, the French Foreign Legion undertakes its oldest work: turning strangers into legionnaires.

The instruction is a slow ceremony. French verbs on a whiteboard, ropes in a cold gymnasium, mud under the barbed wire, long marches through the hills — until the evening when a white képi is set on a shaved head, and a man who was a stranger weeps for the country that has just adopted him.

Rows of Foreign Legion recruits do push-ups on the grass before an ochre Provençal farmhouse — Training begins on one of the three farms of the 4e Régiment étranger (4e RE).

Push-up fitness test on a running track, an instructor with a clipboard in the foreground — Sport sets the rhythm of the volunteer recruits’ days.

Two silhouetted Foreign Legion recruits climb ropes in a gymnasium against a sunburst window — Physical tests are held regularly.

A Foreign Legion instructor teaches French grammar at a whiteboard to recruits — French class: recruits must master a vocabulary of 500 words.

Foreign Legion recruits stand at attention behind a breakfast table in a stone-walled mess — Everything is codified — even meals.

Foreign Legion recruits dive into an indoor pool during a swim test, a long line waiting — Swim tests included.

A recruit with camouflage face paint crawls through a giant tyre obstacle under barbed wire — The assault course.

Recruits duck in concrete throwing pits as grenades explode downrange — Grenade-throwing practice.

A Legion beret filled with rifle rounds beside magazines, during live-fire practice — Live-fire practice.

A long file of loaded Foreign Legion recruits climbs a rocky ridge above a lake — The képi blanc march: fifty kilometres across the hills to earn the famous white képi.

Ranks of legs in khaki dress uniform, each hand holding a white képi before the ceremony — The képi blanc ceremony.

A new legionnaire in white képi wipes away tears facing a decorated officer at twilight — Overcome with emotion, a recruit weeps before his instructor.

The képi blanc ceremony seen from behind ranks of white képis on the parade square — Back at the regiment, they are now legionnaires.

Alban, a French legionnaire newly promoted to corporal, tipping his white képi — Alban, a Frenchman serving in the Legion, has just been promoted to corporal.