Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Légion étrangère - not just for Snoopy!

The French Foreign Legion. Who hasn't held onto to some romantic notion where you can go and leave your past behind, start anew. French citizens can only join under an assumed identity, with a declared non-French nationality.

Of course, it's only open to men, so they wouldn't take me. Sigh.

The first thing I think of with the Légion étrangère is Snoopy, who held the rank of Sargent. Then I think of Brendan Fraser's character in The Mummy, Rick was a member.

Check out the web page. Indulge in a little fantasy... Desert sands and mystery.

I wonder how many Québécois join the legion? Serge, do you know?

Anyone else have a ridiculously silly and idealized notion about the Legion or some other military/governmental group?

10 comments:

Janiece said...

Tania, you and I can be "Camp Followers." I understand the Legion keeps them on retainer for the mental well-being of the Legionnaires.

Tania said...

Yeah! I could be a camp follower...

I had fun looking at the pay scale and reading through all the requirements.

Jeri said...

I'm not so sure about the job description of camp follower. ;)

My shooting is probably better than my, errr, compliance. If you get my drift.

Random Michelle K said...

I can guarantee I'd make a terrible camp follower.

Unless someone wanted a French Foreign Legion jester.

I'm much more of a bind my breasts and pretend to be a boy kinda woman.

Jim Wright said...

Uh, in reality there's nothing particularly romantic about the Legion. And they generally get assigned duties in some really crappy places.

Nathan said...

Yeah, Jim,

but they have really cool caps!

Tania said...

Oh, I know it can't really be that good. Reality is never as good as fantasy.

But the Legion has SNOOPY as a member.

Anonymous said...

If not a camp follower, Tania (or Janiece) could be la fille du régiment. Hmmm... Why would someone who likes living in the North Pole want to join the Foreign Legion? The Alien Legion, sure...

Anne C. said...

One of my favorite classics is Beau Geste by P.C. Wren. It's the adventures of three English brothers who join the F.L. Essentially, it's an adventure story. (If you like The Three Musketeers or the Sharpe's Rifles series, you'll probably like this. Obviously, I'm a sucker for adventures written primarily for boys.
Oh, and looking at the back of the book, it appears there were several movie versions made -- the most famous with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland.

Anonymous said...

Just stumbled across this post whilst searching for french foreign legion blogs....

Don't know if you're still interested, but I'm writing about my (limited) experiences in the Legion at the moment on my blog

It's a shame they didn't accept women! It'd definitely have spiced things up a little!!