By Christian Morisot
Isabelle Maury is possessed by a passion for painting the French Foreign Legion, and more specifically, the legionnaire.
Her recent visit to Saumur left a particularly delicate and high-quality impression.

She discreetly expresses her position on bullfighting without taking a firm stance, and her paintings can be interpreted by both sides, for and against; everyone finds something to appreciate. However, there is no misunderstanding; Isabelle subtly conveys her message.

Painting is not knowledge. Nor is it pleasure. Before experiencing it, the painter is plunged into darkness. He must emerge from it for the transgression of inventing objective and subjective forms to take place. It is projecting oneself into an inner universe while using the incorruptible world of visual reality.

Painting is about discovering the sensitivity to beauty, the kind that leads to an understanding of art and the uncertainty of the laws and criteria of beauty, which often remain unexplained.
“Isabelle” embodies intellectual beauty, expressed through a skillful blending of multiple color varieties, which a deliberate yet controlled indiscipline transforms into a work of art... Read more...

Calligraphy (from the Greek kallos = beauty, graphein = to write).

It appeared as early as the first civilizations, in ancient Egypt with hieroglyphs, in China where it very quickly became a major art form (more than 2,000 years BCE), and then in the Islamic world where Arabic script took on a spiritual dimension.

In medieval Europe, copyist monks decorated manuscripts in scriptoria. The invention of printing in the 15th century reduced its utilitarian role, but it remained an art... Read more...

By Louis Perez y Cid
The Legion Massacre Center in Puyloubier is not simply a burial ground. It is the direct heir to the memory of the Legion in Algeria and the spiritual extension of Sidi Bel Abbès.
Its history unfolds in two stages.

The first stage dates back to 1954. The residents of the Institution for Disabled Veterans of the Foreign Legion (IILE), located in Puyloubier, were buried in the village's municipal cemetery.
These veterans, wounded by war or by life's hardships, found a dignified burial there, in keeping with the spirit of camaraderie characteristic of the Legion. At this stage, it is not yet the "Legion Square" in the historical sense of the term, but a resting place for veterans of the Institution.

The true Legion Square was established after the departure from Algeria.

In 1962, the Legion definitively left Sidi Bel Abbès, its home base since 1843. It was then necessary to preserve the essential: the memory.

The ashes of the "Legion Pantheon" were transferred to mainland France, to Puyloubier.

• General Paul-Frédéric Rollet, a founding figure of the modern Legion.

• Prince Aage of Denmark, a Legion officer.

• Legionnaire Zimmermann, the last to be killed in Algeria
Their graves, known as "eternal" graves, are aligned along... Read more...

By Louis Perez y Cid
The traditions of the French Foreign Legion are an integral part of its heritage and culture. Forged empirically, they guarantee its identity and unity, and remain an essential factor in its integration and cohesion.

Some are very old and originate from customs predating the creation of the Foreign Legion (1831). Others are more recent; their adoption proves the Legion's ability to adapt to the times and demonstrates that these traditions are not static but are meant to evolve.

They nevertheless rest on a few immutable foundations that constitute their basis and contribute to ensuring their continuity.

The Four Fundamental Pillars.
Daily life, training, and operations are guided by four principles:

• The sacred nature of the mission.
• Rigor in execution.
• Solidarity.
• The veneration of remembrance.

A specific motto.

The Legion respects the nationality of each legionnaire and will never force him to fight against his country of origin; this is stipulated in the enlistment contract.

However, it constitutes a "second homeland," firstly to unite all these men from different countries, secondly to serve as a shared culture, and finally to give them a cause to defend, a reason to fight, even to die. Read more...

By Louis Perez y Cid
Solidarity is not born of joy. It is born of pain. We feel closer to those with whom we have suffered than to those with whom we have succeeded. Happiness flatters the ego. Adversity, however, forges bonds between men. In every collective victory, a touch of bitterness creeps in. Each person assesses their contribution, compares themselves, sometimes feeling wronged. Families are torn apart over inheritances, groups fragment after success, movements disintegrate once power is seized. Triumph divides. Misfortune unites.
The cohesion of a core group is forged elsewhere, in the memory of a shared ordeal. It is there that the individual fades into the background, giving way to the body. In the French Foreign Legion, this memory has a name: Camerone.

It is not a happy myth. It is a defeat, an agony, a loyalty unto death. But this is precisely why it is the foundation of Legionary solidarity. Victory is not celebrated here, but sacrifice. Not success, but loyalty in the face of adversity.

The etymology states it plainly. Sympathy and compassion mean "to suffer with." In the Legion, solidarity is not an abstract feeling. It is a lived experience, passed down, and remembered. It is the invisible bond that unites those who have fallen, those who still suffer, and those who continue to serve.

This is why, in the history of the Legion, great acts of solidarity always arise after wars. After the mass graves of 1914, General Rollet worked for the wounded veterans, and following the financial crisis of 1929, the Legionnaire's House was built in Auriol. After 1945, Colonel Gaultier continued this fraternal work. And after Indochina, the war that General Coullon would call the "genocide of the French army," General Koenig gave the Legion the institution of the Invalides in Puyloubier, a refuge for the wounded and veterans.
Each time, the same logic prevailed: pain calls for mutual support. Loss calls for loyalty. Nothing is theoretical. Everything is visceral.
Read more...

By Louis Perez y Cid

For over two centuries, military painting and sculpture have occupied a unique place in French artistic creation. Masters such as Horace Vernet (1789-1863), Édouard Detaille (1848-1912), and Alphonse de Neuville (1835-1885) shaped a true visual tradition where historical realism, the exaltation of courage, and the memory of battles intertwine. This lineage of artists gave rise to a powerful, often monumental, iconography that tells the story of both the evolution of the French army and the spirit of those who serve it.
Read more...

By Louis Perez y Cid
The French Foreign Legion has always been a source of inspiration. For nearly two centuries, it has attracted the pens of historians, writers, journalists… but also those of former legionnaires themselves, who have committed to paper their memories of battles, friendships, and sacrifices. Through these books, the very soul of the Legion is transmitted, a blend of memory and legend.

Stories that make history.
It is difficult to speak of the Legion without mentioning these three reference works, which I consider essential for grasping the scope of the Legionary epic:

“Honor and Fidelity. That is the Legion” by Louis Gaultier and Charles Jacquot, former members of the Legion. Illustrations by Louis Frégier, 1963.

Published in three volumes for the centenary of Camerone, the authors invite us to explore the battles of this elite corps from its origins to the Algerian War of 1962.

"History of the Foreign Legion" by Georges Blond - 1981.
Published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Legion's creation, it is both the most extraordinary adventure story and a century and a half of French history.

"The Foreign Legion 1831-1962" by Douglas Porch - 1991.
Published in the USA in English, and in 1994 for the French translation and preface. This fundamental and uncompromising study is a model of military history, tracing the evolution of the Legion from its creation in 1831 to modern operations.

There are other books of very high quality, but I believe that with these three books you will understand what the French Foreign Legion truly is and how it has managed to endure through the ages.
The Legionnaires' Voices
Nothing equals the power of a personal account. Reading the memoirs of a veteran is to share their daily life: the hardship of the marches, the camaraderie in adversity, the moments of glory as well as the silent wounds. Accounts such as:

"Memories of Algeria 1840-1842" by Clement Lamping.
The German text was published in 1844 and then fell into oblivion. It was first published in French in 2000 by Bouchene. Originally from northern Germany, the author participated in various expeditions in the Algiers and Oran regions. His memoirs read like a meticulous and objective chronicle of the conquest. This is the oldest book by a legionnaire that I have ever read.

"I Am a Legionnaire" by Jean Martin, a legionnaire, with a preface by General Rollet.

Published in 1938 by Librairie Arthème Fayard, this book was written for his godmother during the war, Suzy Solidor, a singer, film actress (La Garçonne), and novelist.

"Le Légionnaire Flutsch," published by Librairie Plon in 1982, is written by Antoine Sylvère. The author, a legionnaire himself, is neither for nor against the Legion; it is the very essence of his book. He observes it as a man might examine his own body, noting its imperfections, its knotted muscles, its battered faces, but also its graces. It is the daily life of the Legion that he reveals to us. It's not the legion itself that interests Sylvère, but the men who made it up at the beginning of the 20th century.

I'm mentioning here the three books that particularly struck me.

There are many others, much more recent, such as "Carnet d'un légionnaire Mongol" (Diary of a Mongolian Legionnaire) by Oyunbat Baatartsogt, published by Amazon. It's a memoir of nine years of service in the French Foreign Legion (from 2010 to 2019).

Biographies of Legion veterans.

It's difficult to talk about the Legion without mentioning the highly emblematic General Rollet.

"Paul-Frédéric Rollet: Father of the Foreign Legion" by Pierre Soulié.
Published by the French Foreign Legion Command. Published by Italiques, 2001. This remarkable work, the fruit of ten years of research by the author under the auspices of the French Foreign Legion, was first published in the pages of the magazine Képi Blanc before being compiled into a single 730-page volume.
From the 19th century until recently, only the biographies of high-ranking officers interested authors.

For the past few years, Lieutenant Colonel Mickaël De Prat, a former Legionnaire and member of Légion'Arts, has dedicated himself to retracing the lives of Legionnaires who were direct participants in the Second World War, the Indochina War, and the Algerian War.
I invite you to browse the Comics & Books section of this website to discover all his works.

Art Books and Photographs
The Legion is also an aesthetic: uniforms, traditions, landscapes of war or brotherhood. Photographic albums and catalogs by military painters capture this visual dimension. Some works are true works of art, prized by collectors.

"Gazette des uniformes" (Uniform Gazette). Special issues 6 and 7 are devoted to the history, uniform, and equipment of the Legion from 1831 to 1997.
"L'uniforme légionnaire" (The Legionary Uniform) in two volumes, published by Képi Blanc magazine in 2005. Foreword by General Bruno Dary and illustrated by Evguenii Ponomarev, legionnaire, army painter, and member of Légion'Arts.

Why do these books matter?
Ultimately, whether you choose a historical treatise, a raw testimony, a vibrant graphic novel, or an art book, each work on the French Foreign Legion contributes to preserving a unique memory.
These books are more than just printed pages: they are fragments of the universal history of men from all over the world who came to serve under the same flag, the green and red one.
At Légion'Arts, we believe that art and publishing are essential for transmitting this memory.