The albums on the Foreign Legion featured stern, inaccessible people. The photographer left and the fun began

The author returns in her book to the time when, at the age of just over 20, she had to share her love with her greatest rival – Legia. An opportunity to get to know the life of the formation up close was provided by her stay in French Guiana. The book shows colorful, full of curiosities, personal memories of an exotic, full of joy and carefree expedition, showing the life of soldiers “from the inside”, from a female perspective. Emotional threads are intertwined with cultural ones, and in the background there are also Africa, France, Poland and the Balkans. The novel ends with a fictionalized story about the girl-legionnaire relationship. It is a story of fictional characters, part of another book by the author – “The Trail of the Heart” – which allowed us to say much more. Below we present a fragment of the “Foreign Legion through a Woman’s Eye”, which was released on April 30th.

Magdalena Stykała, “Foreign Legion through a Lady’s Eye” – excerpt from the book

I sat next to Mateusz and watched the boys. In fact, the formation’s slogan did not lie: “Legia is our family”. Thought she even cares about the family resemblance. They all had very short hair cut in a characteristic way. Very tanned, and the faces were distinguished by eyes and exposed teeth in a smile. None of them was massive, as people reading adventure books probably imagine a formidable legionnaire. On the contrary, they were very thin, almost skinny. This would turn out to be the rule. They were closer to the figure of marathon runners.

Built with nothing but muscles and tendons, naturally athletic. They were constantly on the move, everyday sports, exercises, training, compulsory jogging and several weeks in the field did not give any chance to gain extra pounds. Although they seemed almost boyish in build, they were extremely tough. Their body seemed to know better, because carrying several dozen kilograms of luggage on their backs, it was easier to move forward when you did not carry your own extra pounds. Besides, they were always hungry, and not always found time to eat, preferring to take liquid food, and even more often as a percentage, which was also part of the daily routine. I had no idea where they got their strength from, rushing straight from the party to the fundraiser, only to run through town in military boots, doing my morning training. (…)

The climate and incomparably greater freedom certainly influenced the current approach to life of soldiers. They were relaxed, calm and cheerful. They enjoyed tropical slack, longing for civilization, and in the case of our legionnaires – for Polishness. All this overlapped to create a specific image of a soldier. We were lucky to meet heartfelt, joyful and wise guys. (…)

This is how I see a Guyana legionnaire: a lean, tanned, smiling boy with sparkling eyes. At the airport in the capital of Guyana, there was no sleeve connecting the plane to the hall. We got straight onto the Cayenne-Rochambeu airport apron, going down the steps. The first impression after stepping out of the air-conditioned jumbo jet shocked us. There was no air there, there seemed to be nothing to breathe, and the space around it was dense. I felt like stepping into a hot greenhouse. I didn’t realize it was just a tropical climate and it takes a few moments to get used to.

Guyana is an overseas department of France, it has been a penal colony since 1848, and this infamous history has left its traces in the form of abandoned prisons from the 19th century, scattered around various corners of this small country. Poland is almost four times larger. The hot climate meant that life was concentrated on the coast, because more than eighty percent of the country is covered by equatorial forests. The most important place in Guyana is the Kourou spaceport, from which the Ariane rockets are launched. The proximity of the equator and the small number of inhabitants make the country the best location for the French gate to space. This fact makes it an extremely important strategic territory, which in turn explains the presence of the Foreign Legion in Kourou.

Guyana provided jungle training opportunities that were used all year round. There was always a group of legionnaires in the forest. They spent there from a few days to a month, taking part in training and internships. They guarded the borders, searched for illegal gold prospectors or other amateurs of suspicious interests located in the jungle. They worked on building buildings deep in the forest, sometimes protecting Indian villages. They stayed strictly in the forest, where, breaking through the jungle, they made their way with machetes, preparing temporary camps or used places belonging to the Legia, which were some kind of training and excursion bases. These included Régina, located on the right side of the country within Cayenne, 160 kilometers from Kourou and more than 230 kilometers from the city on the Oyapock River, which was the border with Brazil: Saint-Georges-de-l’Oyapock and hidden yet further south of Campoi. (…)

Many photos have just been taken in the jungle, and then placed in albums devoted to Legia, brochures, magazines, and books to bring the life of formation closer to people from outside. The difference between the photos presented in these prints and the private photos of the legionnaires was huge. The albums presented fierce, inaccessible people with serious, fearful and respectful looks, photos of real tough guys. On the other hand, in the photos that the boys took themselves at that time, you can see laughing young people sitting by a stream in the jungle, sleeping in hammocks by the fire, bathing in a tropical river. Smiling faces, uniforms abandoned on the shore and the joy of rest after the hardships of the internship. (…)

It was great to look at their laughing faces, which often still showed traces of dirt from the work done. The training was over, the photographer was leaving, and the boys drank their mosquito rum in the evening, joked, made jokes and could have fun and enjoy the moment even in such conditions. (…) The percentages were flowing in a wide stream. Johnnie Walker was the most common choice of soldiers. Of course, it was not stereotypical in this case either. Nobody brought the drinks to the table. The legionnaire would buy the whole bottle for the evening, and if there was something left, and the party was over, he would return the bottle to the bar, signing himself with a familiar slogan to wait for him when he came again.

(…) I noticed under the sleeve of my shirt [jednego z chłopaków] quite a tattoo, something like two snakes woven together. It was the first tattoo in Guyana that I heard a story about. Later it turned out that they were part of the legionnaires’ world. There was even a book documenting them, which includes, among others, photos of Jumper’s back and arms. Nearly one hundred percent of the Legion’s soldiers have tattoos. We always watched them with interest, and they were eager to talk about them. Some were really huge, others merely symbolic. They were created in regiments where more talented draftsmen made patterns on the skin. These souvenirs were often brought from all over the world. Some of them were very beautiful, others we did not like at all. Each of the drawings on the body spoke about something and had its own story. The tattoo on the arm of the Jumper was made in Thailand. The drawing on Mateusz’s shoulder was made by a friend from the Guyana regiment. A Pole who was extremely talented in this direction. The commanders appreciated his abilities, entrusting him with creating graphics depicting scenes from the life of the Legia on the walls in the regiments. His works were very beautiful. (…) Another of Mateusz’s friends gave me the poems he wrote. Talented people, describing the world with a drawing and a word … Legionnaires …

The Foreign Legion through a female eye mat. ferry.