# Please explain this picture **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557 "2016-01-29T06:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/1 "2016-01-29T06:30:41Z")
They’re from the French Foreign Legion. [http://static.lexpress.fr/medias\_10103/w\_605,h\_350,c\_fill,g\_north/legion-etrangere-14-juillet-2014\_5172843.jpg](http://static.lexpress.fr/medias_10103/w_605,h_350,c_fill,g_north/legion-etrangere-14-juillet-2014_5172843.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/2 "2016-01-29T06:36:07Z")
Looks like some bearded guys in uniforms carrying axes. What don’t you understand about it? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/3 "2016-01-29T06:48:20Z")
They’re lumberjacks, and they’re OK? ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/4 "2016-01-29T06:51:25Z")
Well, they’re Legionaires, and from what little I know of them, they don’t get to hew at that many things with an ax, often being deployed in some arid or semi-arid place in Africa. When I visited the site (it was in French) it showed them wearing some kind of leather work apron, so this unit must represent a specific function. What it is, I can’t imagine. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/5 "2016-01-29T06:58:21Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > They’re from the French Foreign Legion. > > [http://static.lexpress.fr/medias\_10103/w\_605,h\_350,c\_fill,g\_north/legion-etrangere-14-juillet-2014\_5172843.jpg](http://static.lexpress.fr/medias_10103/w_605,h_350,c_fill,g_north/legion-etrangere-14-juillet-2014_5172843.jpg) When they first joined, it was the Sahara Forest. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/6 "2016-01-29T07:01:48Z")
Bwa! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/7 "2016-01-29T07:01:55Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Well, they’re Legionaires, and from what little I know of them, they don’t get to hew at that many things with an ax, often being deployed in some arid or semi-arid place in Africa. You’ve heard of pageantry right? It’s pretty obvious that’s what your pic is showing. I doubt functionality has much to do with it, though I’m sure the axes have some kind of symbolic significance, if that’s what you’re asking. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/8 "2016-01-29T07:04:22Z")
[Foreign Legion Pioneers.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Legion_Pioneers_%28Pionniers%29) > [@](#): > > The Pioneers of the Foreign Legion (French: Pionniers de La Légion Étrangère) form a unit of tradition. They lead and open legion parades during all honorific ceremonies of arms and wear beards, buffalo leather aprons (French: tablier de buffle), and arm resting axes on their shoulders. > > […] > > Early in the XVIII century; small pionniers units, the axemen soldiers in the Grenadier combat companies see action in the corps regiments serving the French Royal Army.[2] Their mission then was to mount assaults at the head of all combat units in order to destroy the obstacles created by the enemy. > > […] > > Military parades of the Foreign Legion are headed and opened by this section to maintain the tradition of sapeurs opening and clearing the way […] Well, that’s… sort of an explanation, I guess. They sure look pretty silly, though. Not that I would tell them that to their faces. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/9 "2016-01-29T07:19:56Z")
Aaaanndd there you have it. Thanks, MB. For a while I thought the Dope would fail me. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/10 "2016-01-29T07:52:56Z")
n/m ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/11 "2016-01-29T07:54:04Z")
Sorry, edit function got weird on me. Anyway, the Dope never fails. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/12 "2016-01-29T08:04:24Z")
It’s already been explained why these men are marching with axes and leather aprons. The picture itself was taken during a parade on the Champs-Élysées on Bastille Day 2014: > **[On Bastille Day, France commemorates WWI\[8\]- Chinadaily.com.cn](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2014-07/14/content_17771035_8.htm)** > > France's President Francois Hollande (L) and French Army Chief of Staff, General Pierre de Villiers ride in a command car during the traditional Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris July 14, 2014. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/13 "2016-01-29T08:24:23Z")
Ceremonial traditions often look odd (the Household Cavalry in the UK always have two riders in the rear carrying shiny axes, from the days when a horse claimed to be dead and requiring replacement and compensation - rather than just quietly sold off on the side - had to be shown to be dead, by producing a severed hoof), but that’s rather the point. The functional rationale is historical; the current everyday reality would just be a bit banal (and when it comes to the military, maybe a bit too realistically close to home). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/14 "2016-01-29T08:39:20Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > the Household Cavalry in the UK always have two riders in the rear carrying shiny axes, from the days when a horse claimed to be dead You know, this story sounds so much weirder if you stop reading it at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/15 "2016-01-29T09:17:58Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > They’re from the French Foreign Legion. > > [http://static.lexpress.fr/medias\_10103/w\_605,h\_350,c\_fill,g\_north/legion-etrangere-14-juillet-2014\_5172843.jpg](http://static.lexpress.fr/medias_10103/w_605,h_350,c_fill,g_north/legion-etrangere-14-juillet-2014_5172843.jpg) Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/16 "2016-01-29T09:53:33Z")
^ three… two… one… BWA! HA! HA! HA! HA! ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/17 "2016-01-29T10:01:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! Darn it, I’m still snivelling. And knock off time still 15 minutes away! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/18 "2016-01-29T14:27:20Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > [Foreign Legion Pioneers.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Legion_Pioneers_%28Pionniers%29) > > Well, that’s… sort of an explanation, I guess. They sure look pretty silly, though. Not that I would tell them that to their faces. Pioneers or Sappers in most European-centric forces = combat engineers in the US Army and Marine Corps, although US Army infantry combat engineers are called Sappers again apparently. Sappers historically were the troops who drove “Saps”, or trenches toward the enemy fortifications in order to get guns and mortars within range. As you can imagine, this was a somewhat specialized and hazardous job. And for whatever reason, the beards and axes are a sapper/pioneer thing, not a Legion thing; the British Army has a position called “[Pioneer Sergeant](http://forces.tv/42849745)”, and so do a lot of other Commonwealth forces. ([here’s another photo](http://i.imgur.com/kfIJ8X7.jpg)) And if you watch the 2004 John Lee Hancock movie “The Alamo”, if you pay attention, you’ll see the Mexican sappers advance in a few shots- complete with beards and axes. The Legion sappers are just more prominent- I think there’s one guy per regiment in the British Army, while the Legion has a whole bunch of them, and they lead the parades, so they’re very obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/19 "2016-01-30T20:56:16Z")
Is this where the expression “ass hats” originated? Or is it “axe hats”? I’m very confused. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/20 "2016-01-30T21:30:19Z")
Prospects looked grim for the annual Sadie Hawkins Day Parade due to the passage of some startlingly strict open carry laws, until one of the new recruits had a clever idea and headed to the local hardware store… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557.md?page=2)