1er Régiment Étranger de Cavalerie

The first ground troops in Mali deployed by the French army are Foreign Legionnaires. Forgive me for being girly about this: I think it’s the fault of Edith Piaf. This is of course impossibly romantic. A Cavalry of Foreign Legionnaires?? I swooned until someone a little more informed told me that did not mean On Horseback... And then I looked them up: • 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment, the only cavalry unit in the Foreign Legion • Based in Orange, in France's south-eastern Vaucluse department, since 1967 • Formed in 1921 in Tunisia, partly from White Russian legionnaires • Expert in • desert warfare, saw action in Indochina, Algeria and First Gulf War