Feb
20
The Foreign Legion and their Wine
Filed Under A slice of life, Europe, France
One of the most popular stories on Livingstylishlywell.com over the past two years, has been our visit to the French Foreign Legion Museum in Aubagne. Here’s a little excerpt about their own wine!
The wine of the braves at The Sainte Victoire, Puyloubier (Provence).
Cézanne’s spirit hovers overs above this untouched region, the Sainte Victoire mountain range where the painter came regularly from his Aix-en-Provence base. Cézanne loved theSainte-Victoire area for its particular light and painted there some of its most impressive paintings. A coachman named Fernand Bajole used to transport him a few kilometers from Aix-en-Provence with all his painting materials to the desired spots with view over the Sainte Victoire where he would set up his easel.
Summers in the area are particularly hot, with the rock mountain reverberating the sun’s heat, and the village of Puyloubier which sits at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire mountain happens to host one of the oddest estate in France : the vineyards of the French Foreign Legion, under the name of the “Institution des Invalides de la Légion Etrangère“, a 200-hectare property managed by the Legion and from which the Legion wine is produced. Since 2010, the AOC-Côtes-de-Provence Legion wines with the famed military insignia stamped on the bottles can be purchased by the public.
The Legion is an a typical military corps. The Légion Etrangère was created in 1831 and based in Algeria for France’s difficult conflicts in foreign theaters of operations. It is composed quite exclusively of foreign nationals and has been sent by France since its creation to the most difficult theaters of operation. Anyone who walks through the gate of its bases or at one of its application booths (in the Marseilles train station for example) can apply to become a légionnaire, and for reasons from the search for adventure, the challenge, money or geopolitical upheaval, men from all over the World join the elite corps. While you often meet today Eastern Europeans, Ukrainians, Russians, South Americans and Africans, there is always a small but steady flow of enlistments by Westerners, maybe for the prestige and the challenge.
Active service legionnaires tending the vines
You may not speak French and not have the proper visa, the Legion welcomes you just the same. It used to be that you could be on the run from the law and enlist in the Légion, but rules have changed and the corps looks in the first place for reliable men, and those who wish are given a new identity and are whitewashed. A much sought-after benefit of joining the Legion is the French citizenship that can be obtained after several years of service and good behaviour.
The Legion's insignia on the wine bottles - these can be purchased at the Estate
Source text: www.wine-terroirs.com
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