That’s the pace of “Le Boudin,” the marching song of the French Foreign Legion.
Last to march, first to fight.
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88 Beats to the MinuteBy lex, on February 27th, 2010
17 comments to 88 Beats to the Minute |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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I had a chance to rub shoulders (i.e. drink beer) with Legionaires from 2nd Parachute Regiment at Camp de Canjuers(near Toulon) while serving with 22nd MEU. Great guys and plenty tough Later on, back at Camp Lejeune, my ten year old and I were have lunch in the MCX and saw some Legionaires at another table. I taught him to say “Vive la Legion” and sent him over. They practically carried him on their shoulders.
It feels odd to type this, but, well………. Stud bloodletters under the French flag. Esprit de corps. To the max.
Excellent article, thanks for sharing.
One line of “Le Boudin” is “there is none for the Begians, they are malingerers.”
Kind of strange that a song about sausage would be a marching song.
Tough bunch, though.
Too bad those French, Germans and Italians won’t come and lend a hand in Kandahar, huh? Guess their government masters aren’t quite so brave. Last time I checked, it was a NATO mission. Except its only the US, Canada, the Danes and the Brits that get shot at! Us Canucks had to go buy some used Chinooks from the USA. We asked the Germans and Italians if they could send some assets in country; they said they couldn’t, as the choppers might get damaged or destroyed, and that wopuldn’t play well at home!
hmm… so in Brazzaville in the Congo Republic, it took Legionaires to escort the US Ambassador out to Maya Maya Airport…
..would any of our Marine Corps brethren care to enlighten us as to what/how THAT happened?!?!
And I always thought boudin was hot saussage made in Louisiana. Back to the gin I guess.
Greetings:
As my favorite Platoon Sergeant use to say, “There’s soldiers that march and there’s soldiers that fight.” Now, I guess that there are some that do both.
Damn…I saw the Discovery Channel show on the Legion…Damn Tough M-F’ers….too bad the rest of France couldn’t be as 1/10th as brave & daring as the Legion.
Ask them about Camerone.
One line of “Le Boudin” is “there is none for the Begians, they are malingerers.”
Malingerers is an awfully PC translation of “tireurs au cul” — the idiom is more along the lines of “worthless buggers.”
Since I spoke a man’s language (German) I had to rely on a translation of Le Boudin. I can’t remember who did the translation, but I saw it in a book about the Legion. I imagine the book was written for a family audience
Heh. Why limit your linguistic skills to just a couple of languages?
I had more conversations in French in Vietnam and Cambodia than I did in Vietnamese, Khmer, or English. Only place my German ever did me any good was in Germany…
Damn, Bill! I mind (former) Major Unger, and advisor in Vietnam and my roommate for a while.
He went to the language school in Monterey to learn Vietnamese, but the French he learned in college was more useful to him there. He told of looking up at the stars, out in the field, and quoting Mallarme, and his Vietnamese counterpart went all You, too? at him. They seriously bonded after that. I think he said his counterpart offered to put him up in Vietnam after Jack Kennedy got shot, in case Major Unger could not go home.
Gee, Bill, and all this time I thought you relied on the 27″ zipper…
I betcha there are languages other than English in which the description of the 27″ zipper sounds much more euphonious, and mellifluous, and romantic than it does in our harsh Anglo-Saxon tongue.
I remember a book I used to have, written by a guy who did a hitch or so in the US Army as an airborne sojer, and later found himself at loose ends. Wotthehell, he thought, I’ll try the Foreign Legion. It was much as described at the link.
He had to suffer some cognitive dissonance, however. Apparently the stories we hear about Frenchmen bathing infrequently and washing their clothes even less frequently are true. He told of standing inspection and having the officer do a double-take and come back, asking him “What is that?” about the t-shirt he wore under his blouse. He gave the US Army explanation, about keeping the outer garment free from body secretions and bad smells with said t-shirt, and the French officer looked at him like he’d just landed from Mars or someplace.
The officer proceeded to get all over him about being a sissy American who expected to bathe like a girl, etc. and ended up rolling eyes and moving on.