PK0 of Legionary Solidarity
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The Original Tale

By Christian Morisot
For several years, I wrote Christmas stories for Képi Blanc. It was a true intellectual preparation for me, where emotion was expressed through anecdotes often drawn from my own experience, enhanced by the human warmth so well suited to the unique atmosphere of this great Legion celebration. I always took great pleasure in complementing these stories with the inspired and talented illustrations created by my friend Louis Perez y Cid.

That year, however, I was suffering from writer's block. I was out of breath. Too many worries had clouded that natural inclination that allows one to dream, to imagine, and, above all, to tell stories.

And so I found myself amidst the vineyards in Puyloubier, on a long, solitary walk, seeking inspiration at every step and perhaps also searching for that famous "lost time."

This walk also provided an opportunity to confirm some thoughts that were dear to me. When one is powerless to obtain what another possesses, envy can easily transform into moral judgment: behind every success, one imagines an inheritance; behind every ambition, discrimination. Yet it seemed to me that one should prefer emulation to resentment, a sense of effort to a taste for ease, merit to jealousy.

One must also know how to establish a hierarchy of priorities. For when one no longer knows how to admire, one ends up no longer knowing what to do to give more meaning to the time that remains to us.

It was in the midst of these reflections that I noticed a large stone emerging from the mud.

I imagined it then as a marker carved long ago by a legionnaire, in the early days of the institution's creation. A way, perhaps, of expressing his gratitude to this Legion which, against all odds, had never abandoned him.

I had my Christmas story!

I mentioned it to my friend PyC, who found the idea interesting. Then the years passed.

Several years went by before my friend, elected president of the board of directors of the Puyloubier Veterans' Association, rediscovered this idea and decided to give it a new dimension.
He then adopted the concept of a marker: "PK0 of Legionnaire Solidarity."

This idea would become a true mission. It was intended to bring together the members of the Association around a core objective: to provide the best possible service to the residents of the IILE, particularly in the area of ​​communication, but also to foster the camaraderie that constitutes one of the deepest expressions of the Legion's spirit.

This camaraderie is also manifested through the Legion School and its annual cycling race, now known by the aptly named "La Solidaire" (The Solidarity Race).