French Foreign Legion Information

On August 1, 2026, Brigadier General Christophe Passerat de La Chapelle took officially command of the French Foreign Legion and became the new Père Légion, or “Father of the Legion.” He succeeded Major General Cyrille Youchtchenko, who had led the elite corps for the past three years. Born in 1973, Passerat de La Chapelle is ...

Summer is traditionally a quiet season for Legion news, but a nice photo slideshow is well worth a look while things wind down. Posted on YouTube by an Italian former legionnaire, the video takes viewers through his five years of service in the French Foreign Legion, from August 1987 to August 1992, most of it ...

On July 19, 2026, the French Foreign Legion held a White Kepi Ceremony (Remise des Képis blancs) on the ramparts of the historic port city of Saint-Malo, in Brittany, a historical region in the north-west of France. During the ceremony, forty recruits from the 3rd Platoon, 1st Company of Enlisted Volunteers of the 4th Foreign ...

July 14 marks France’s national holiday, Bastille Day. Beyond the main military parade in Paris, where the French Foreign Legion was represented once again this year, Legion units also take part in local celebrations held across the country and in France’s overseas territories. On July 14, 2026, Foreign Legion soldiers joined national holiday events in ...

In early July 2026, a French Foreign Legion sergeant serving with the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) died during a training course in the Alps. He was 32 years old. On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, Sergeant Vladislav Pena, a 32-year-old legionnaire assigned to the 2e REG at Saint-Christol (in southeastern France), took part in ...