The Legion Unvarnished
The Legion Section of the Auriol Cemetery

Early 1999. The handover of responsibilities for the management of the Legionnaire's Home in Auriol between Captain (ret.) Cattaneo and myself was drawing to a close. As is customary when assuming a new responsibility, I wanted to learn about all aspects of the Home's operations, including those concerning its former residents after their passing. I therefore asked him where the deceased residents were buried.

At that time, the Auriol cemetery had only two six-person vaults. The first was already fully occupied; the second had been converted into an ossuary. Consequently, when one of our former residents passed away, they were generally taken to the Saint-Pierre Cemetery in Marseille, where the municipality had reserved a plot for the dead of the Foreign Legion, under the responsibility of the Mutual Aid Center.

For several years, this solution was implemented without my giving it much thought. However, one day, I felt the need to see this infamous vault, which served as an ossuary, with my own eyes. I requested that it be opened.

With the assistance of the city's funeral home, we went there. My deputy, Chief Warrant Officer Jean-Jacques Basile, and Mr. de Mauduit, president of Secours de France, were with me. Just a few days earlier, he had presented the home with a brand-new Mercedes to improve the residents' transportation to medical appointments and outings.

When the heavy slab was lifted, a hush fell over the room. What we discovered remains etched in my memory. The bones still lay in the clothes they had worn in their final moments. Even more disturbing, one of the bodies had not yet completed its decomposition. Faced with this sight, everyone was speechless.

Mr. de Mauduit was particularly shaken. After a long moment, he murmured a phrase I have never forgotten:

"I will never forget that gaze from another world..."

At that precise moment, a project was born.

For him, it was no longer conceivable that those who had given so much to the Legion should rest in such conditions. He immediately proposed that I finance the creation of a proper Legion section in the Auriol cemetery, a place worthy of the former legionnaires of the Legion, where each could receive the honors due to their service.

I immediately contacted the director of technical services for the town of Auriol. Together, we walked the cemetery paths to find a suitable location. I explained to him that this space should not only accommodate graves: it should also allow for the organization of our military ceremonies, often attended by numerous participants and an honor guard.

We quickly found the ideal location.

The only difficulty: the land was already reserved.

I then requested a meeting with Mrs. Martin, the communist mayor of Auriol. The director of technical services was present during our meeting. After listening attentively to the reasons for our request, the mayor replied with a simplicity that deeply impressed me:

"What the Legion wants, we do!" In one sentence, everything was resolved.

The work could begin.

The project was entrusted to former Warrant Officer Tot Illidja. With great taste and sensitivity, he created a simple and harmonious space, shaded by trees and surrounded by Provençal vegetation. A series of vaults covered in gray marble was built around a memorial wall, in which a magnificent bas-relief, a gift from my longtime friend, the Army painter André Paltrié, was set.

Little by little, plaques bearing the names of deceased legionnaires came to cover this wall. Each one tells a story of service, loyalty, and sacrifice. Together, they form the memory of the House. Established in 1934.

As the years passed, it became necessary to enlarge this space, which had become too small. Mrs. Garcia, still mayor of Auriol, and her town council donated the necessary land to the House, outright. Other generous donors contributed, allowing the Legion plot to take on the appearance it has today.

Every time I come here to pay my respects, I think back to that day when the opening of a simple vault gave rise to a conviction: our ancestors deserved more than a burial place. They deserved a place of remembrance.

It was this conviction that gave birth to the Legion square in Auriol, where those who had chosen to serve France under the colors of the Foreign Legion now rest in dignity and respect.