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A typical day in Foreign Legion

6.00 am: The Section assembles in line in the corridoor for
the morning Appel. After a quick shave and a wash you
will get into Tenue de Sport (PT Kit). The room must be
tidied and the beds made. The beds are not made in the
normal way however. In the Legion the bed is stripped
every day and the blankets folded to an exact size and
placed one on top of another. These will sit at the end of
the bed with the Couverture (Top cover) underneath. The
sheets are folded and rolled in an exact manner to form a
sort of tube. These are then laid diagonally across each
other on top of the blankets to form a cross. This routine
does not stop at the end of basic training but continues for
as long as you reside on a Legion Quartier - regardless of
rank.

6.20am: The Section will be either marched or doubled
across to the refectoir for Le Petit Dejeuner (Breakfast).
This consists of a glass bowl of black coffee or drinking
chocolate. With this you receive half a baguette each and
some jam or marmalade. You will always carry your
issued Opinel (Pen-knife) which you use for breakfast.
You may only have ten minutes to eat this before being
assembled outside to to return to the block. You may
again either march or run back - dependant upon what is
on the agenda for the day and the schedule of timings.

6.30am: Corvet Quartier is next on the agenda. (Straight
line sweep around the building done by the complete
Company to pick up cigarette ends etc.) At the same time
as this, anybody wishing to go sick, reports to the Caporal
Chef down in the Company office. If the rooms are not yet
finished then one or two Legionnaires per room will
remain behind to finish them off. There will also be a
couple of Legionnaires left behind to carry out the Corvet
Chiot (Toilet cleaning duties).

7.00am: Rassemblement (Assembly) by Section, or, if it
is a Monday, it will be as a complete Regiment
(Reglementaire). The Caporal Du Jour will hand you
over to the Sergent and then if there is a senior rank
present you will be handed over to the most senior rank
present. From here you will normally go for a run.
Distance varying from four to eight kilometres.
(Incidently, you will always talk in Kilometres in the
Legion. There are approximately 1.6kms to one mile. Or
0.6 miles to one kilometre. Therefore, as an example;
eight kilometres equals approx. five miles).
Runs in the Legion never start very fast - a great emphasis
is put on warming up for at least the first kilometre or
two, and then it gradually gets faster. At the end of the
run there are usually exercises, rope climbing (always
without the use of your legs), pull ups and sit ups,
followed by stretching.
Periodically the Sergent will have you all straightening
each others spines. The method used, does, for the first
time sound like a very painful process. It can be a little
disconcerting when you hear your spinal column cracking
into line and the man doing it has only learnt the technique
thirty seconds previously. It is however a genuine
technique which was once used by osteopaths.

8.30am: Section arrives back at the block. The Senior
rank will dismiss you into the building where you can get
showered and changed ready for the Casse-scroute
(Snack). This will be probably a quarter of a baguette and
some pate. The Section will now be in Tenue verte (green
combats) for the rest of the day.

9.30am: There will now be a lecture on postings in the
French Foreign Legion. This may be taken by the Sergent,
Sergent Chef or the Lieutenant. The period will last about
one hour. After which you will be allowed outside for a
cigarette break for fifteen minutes.

10.45am: A second lecture will follow on French language
taken by the Lieutenant.

12.00am: The boots will be taken downstairs for a quick
polish before lunch. There will also be time for a quick
Aperitif before lunch.

12.30pm: The Section will assemble ready to be marched
across to the refectoir for lunch. The Section will almost
always march and sing their way across the Place D'arme
(Parade square). There may well be other Sections doing
the same thing.

12.50pm: Feeding time in the Legion is a very well executed
procedure. The Legionnaires form a long line from the
doorway up to the servery with a Caporal at the head of
the queue controlling the passage of troops. When the
head Chef calls out the word "Quatre" - the next four
Legionnaires walk past the servery, picking up a dish of
food each. Since all the tables are laid before the meal
with plates and all the cutlery, there remains only the food
to be collected. This makes for a very rapid feeding
system. In the space of only a few minutes literally
hundreds of Legionnaires can be seated and eating their
food without the hassle of a fifteen minute queue. At the
end of the meal the plates are left on the tables to be
cleared away by the Legionnaires on Corvet. (Which will
at sometime be you).

13.30pm: March back to Le Batiment (Building) to carry out
the Corvette Quartier once more. The rooms will also
have to be cleaned once more if they require it and the
boots polished.

14.00pm: The Section will be assembled and the Sergent will
brief you on what is happening in the afternoon. Today it
consists of being taken over to the Infirmerie for some
tests. These may be urine, blood, a chat with the Medecin
(Doctor), chest X-rays or whatever.

15.30pm: Lessons in drill. Droit droit (Right turn), Gauche
gauche (Left turn) and the demi-tour droit (About turn).
There may also be further lessons on La Presente.

16.50pm: The Compagnie will assemble together for the
march across for the Repas du soir (Evening meal)
sometimes known as La Soupe. Again you will sing. This
may again be preceeded by an Aperitif in the form of pull-
ups, press-ups and sit ups.

17.00pm: La Soupe. (Evening meal)

18.00pm: Les Chants de La Legion (Songs of the Legion).
For several hours you will be in a classroom singing and
reciting Le Code D'Honneur. There will be breaks every
hour or so. For this you will go out into the
corridoor/veranda outside and can smoke.

21.00pm: Apel du soir. This will be carried out by the
Sergent. If he is happy with the rooms and the turnout he
will say Bonne Nuit (Good night) which everyone shouts
back in unison - Bonne nuit Sergent! You can then get to
bed.