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00:00I've never talked about this story on my social media.
00:03It happened in 2011, spring 2011, and at that time, I was about 20 years old, I was a student
00:10but I didn't like what I was doing, I would even say I hated what I was doing, I didn't
00:15like my life, I didn't like my studies, I didn't like anything in general, I felt like
00:19I was depressed, I felt useless.
00:22And one evening, I came across a documentary, The Foreign Legion, I thought to myself, wow,
00:28wow, what's this crazy thing, in fact, in this documentary, they were presented as a modern
00:33day Rambo, like an emgiver from the 2000s, and for a young person like me, well, that spoke
00:38to me, I thought to myself, that's what I want to do, I want action, I realized that that's
00:44what I was missing, the action, the adrenaline, the purpose, and I said to myself, well, let's
00:50go, stupid me, I said to myself, well, go ahead, if they can do it with their arms and legs,
00:56man, I can do it too, and so, I talked to my wife about it, I told her I'm going to the
01:02Legion, what did you tell me, and then I started acting like a mysterious guy, yeah, you know,
01:08baby, homework is calling me, but what homework, you never even do your college homework, and
01:13then, when there's a documentary, you said to yourself, go ahead, I'm going to dive into
01:17it, yeah, that's exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to go to the Legion, and I talked
01:21to my best friends Giselle and Jonas about it, I told them, okay guys, it's okay, I've
01:26decided, I'm going to the Legion, huh, wait, what, he didn't even know what it was, so I
01:31showed them the documentary and everything, he said, yeah, really cool, but honestly, we're
01:35not going, I asked why, they said, yeah, that sounds good, I said, yeah, but I need a challenge,
01:41I need challenges, I'm bored with my current life, quote, so I'm going to go and find out
01:48more because I live in Nancy and that's not how it works, it's not like you go to the
01:53Legion and everything, no, you have to go through different steps, loan positions, recruitment,
01:59selection, and then join the Legion, so I found out more, I went online, I started looking,
02:05and so on, and since I'm in Nancy, the closest pre-recruitment position to my home is in Strasbourg,
02:11which is a two-hour drive away, so one morning, I said to my wife, go ahead, listen, you're
02:17going to drop me off in Strasbourg and head to the Legion, she said, no, you're kidding,
02:22no, I swear, I'm joking, I'm not joking at all, and so I went for it, and you should know
02:26that, well, fortunately I had found out about, well, how to say, the selection criteria, there
02:33were two or three criteria, so first, there was a physical criterion, there was an endurance
02:38test that was called the Luc Leger test, you had to reach, I think, level 13 or 14, so
02:43for those who don't know, what is the Leger test, you have two cones, okay, and you
02:47have a beep, the beep, each time it beeps, you have to be on one of the two cones, okay,
02:52and the beep will increase over time, so that means you have to increase your pace, your
02:58speed, so it works on both endurance and especially resistance, and so I had trained before going
03:05into the forest in the evening like a madman, I had taken myself like a rocker, it's crazy,
03:10I took two blocks, I took a beep, tut, tut, tut, and I reached about level 14 or 15, and that's
03:16okay, since I was coming out of a mass gain, I hadn't done much cardio, I honestly thought I
03:21was proud of myself, luckily I had years of football and endurance behind me, and, uh, and
03:26there was this, plus, you had to do at least three pull-ups, but not three normal pull-ups, so to
03:32speak, no, three pull-ups directly after doing the Lucet test, that is to say, when you're exhausted,
03:39you're asked to do at least three pull-ups, imagine, you're at the end of your tether, you've
03:43just done a test that lasted, I don't know, half an hour and 45 minutes, you're asked to
03:47do three pull-ups, it's tough, but I trained and I managed it, there was a third test that
03:52wasn't necessarily physical, but there was the medical test, well, that's you and your
03:57body, and the last test was a psychometric test, you can't really train for that, are
04:03you stupid or not, you know what I mean, so I showed up in Strasbourg, I felt like I was
04:08in the Vietnam War when I said goodbye to my whole family and everything, yeah, except that
04:13there was no one there, there was just my wife, she was in tears, and I was a good
04:16guy, I didn't feel any emotion, I was almost happy to go because I wanted this
04:20challenge, I wanted this challenge, and so I arrived in front of the Foreign Legion
04:24building at the pre-recruitment post, it's a huge metal door, and so I knocked, boom,
04:31boom, boom, and nothing happened, I knocked again and then they opened the door for me, I
04:37come face to face with a stocky, short, well-built man with a shaved head who says to me,
04:42yeah, why, and I'm, you know, relaxed, hands in my pockets and everything, I say, well,
04:49it's to join the Legion, okay, first of all, you're going to take my hands out of your
04:52pockets, okay, we're not at your mother's house here, and right off the bat, so he lets
04:58me in, he asks for my personal belongings, so, wallet, ID, and my phone, he takes my phone,
05:05he dismantles it, he takes the tib card, and he removes it, let's say from now on you have
05:11no more contact with the world, I say, what the hell, what the hell is this, I didn't
05:16sign up for this, he told me once you got back, that's it, it's over.
05:19He made me sign a paper and so on and so forth, doing, I don't know, we would mop the floor,
05:46we had to make sure it got everywhere, make the beds, and so on and so forth,
05:51and sometimes, well, my comrades didn't understand the instructions, so I would translate for them,
06:18and sometimes, when they didn't do their job well, I would say, no, it's me, I'm the one who did it
06:23badly, and one day the corporal, he got fed up, he said to me, Frankovan, come here to my office,
06:27he said to me, aren't you fed up, aren't you tired of covering up for your comrades, do you think I'm
06:31stupid, quote, I almost said, yeah, then I said no, no, but he said to me, this is the last time,
06:36okay, because next time, you'll be the one, quote, I said, okay, no problem, and actually,
06:41this guy wasn't mean at first, I had a bad preconception, you know, but I said to myself,
06:45but actually, this is how we have to be educated, so to speak, the hard way, it's over, oh, but it
06:50doesn't matter, oh, you don't want to do it, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I, I needed that,
06:55I needed to get a grip on myself, you know, and I think the army is an excellent school,
07:00an excellent school for life, and so, it came time to eat, and, uh, kindly for once, he said to me,
07:08do you eat pork, no, I don't eat pork, he said to me, well, don't worry, you'll always have a dish
07:13that doesn't contain pork, I said, wow, that's nice, you see that, I didn't expect that,
07:18I thought I'd say, go ahead, get lost, you're on your own, you see, and so it was time to take a
07:22shower, everyone had their own shower stall, I took my shower and everything, and then I realized I'd
07:26forgotten my towel, in fact, I realized I'd been in such a rush to get to the legion that I'd forgotten
07:32my towel, and so the first time I took a shower without a towel, well, I didn't do it, I put on my
07:38dirty, sticky clothes straight away, all wet, and I went to sleep, and the next day, I went to see the
07:43corporal, the chief said, corporal, excuse me, I forgot my towel, and then, what did he say, so what,
07:50I said, what do you mean, so what, well, you don't want me to lend you mine either, I said, well, he
07:55said, no, no, you're on your own, and so I continued like that for three days, taking a shower without
08:01drying myself, putting on my disgusting clothes that were sticky on me, it was a horrible feeling,
08:07and one day, I saw a hand holding out a towel to me, and I looked, it was actually the German,
08:13so the German who was with me, he was a little older, and he had two towels, he gave me one,
08:19thank you and everything, that was really nice, but he didn't speak English or French or anything,
08:24so it was complicated, I just said thank you and so on, and one day, I woke up and, uh, there were
08:30some conscripts missing, well, there were people missing, you know, there were some comrades missing,
08:35and he said to the chief, where is the German who was with me, he said to me, no, he's cracked,
08:41he's left, oh yeah, actually, you have to know that when you enter this circle, this atmosphere,
08:48you are absolutely nobody, you don't give your parents any news, you're far from your family,
08:54your wife, in shorts, you're really isolated, and that's fine with me because I've been living
09:00in isolation for years, far from my family and so on, so I'm used to it, it's not an effort that I
09:07have to make, I'm in my own little world, I'm really happy, it doesn't bother me, but I see that
09:13in other people who aren't used to it, well, of course, their morality drops, and when their minds
09:17and morality drop, well, that's it, there's nothing left to follow, there's nothing left to follow,
09:22and I never ask myself that question, I say to myself, well, do I miss it, no, I'm in my element,
09:26I'm happy, there's no problem, quote, that fateful morning arrived, the corporal chief
09:32summoned me to his office and handed me an envelope and said, here, in this envelope are all your
09:37comrades' passports as well as their SIM cards, you're going to have to go to Paris with this
09:42envelope and your comrades, and if you're late, you're a dead man, in fact, my objective was
09:47apparently simple, my other comrades and I were supposed to take the train, I was the group leader
09:54and I had to head with them on the metro and so on to get to our people in man,
09:58it's a foreign legion fort in the 94, and I didn't really have a choice, I accepted the mission like
10:06a man, I told them guys in broken English, follow me, just follow me, I was the leader, I could tell
10:17them whatever I wanted, you see, so when we got to the station, the corporal shook my hand and said,
10:22good luck, it looks like I'm going to Ukraine, this is crazy, Strasbourg guard, we boarded the TGV,
10:29we arrived in Paris and that's where the problem started because for those who don't know,
10:34the Paris metro is a nightmare, so I told them guys, no matter what happens, no matter what happens,
10:41an earthquake, Armageddon, the apocalypse, you follow me, okay, okay, so they followed me,
10:47and luckily in 2007, 2008, well, well before that, uh, I told you that I was doing stand-up
10:53in Paris, so I didn't know the Paris metro like the back of my hand, but I knew it well,
10:58luckily otherwise I would have died, I would have been cooked.
11:02So we took the line, tack tack, we almost missed the thing, and finally we arrived on time at our
11:08people in Marne, Fort de la Foreign Legion in the 94, and so I arrive on time and I say to myself,
11:15yeah, I expect a triumphant arrival, a red carpet, uh, the best chicks, and nothing at all,
11:24nothing at all, there's a guy who comes up and takes my envelope and says, are you the French-speaking
11:28guy from Strasbourg, yeah, it's yeah, yeah, it's me, yeah, and go sit over there with your comrades,
11:34oh, okay, actually, we wait in the cold for one or two hours and other people come to the room
11:42where we were and gather and there are 50, 60, 70 of us and I look inside the fort but there I see
11:48at least 300, 400 people actually. We are really serious here, this is truly a legendary recruiting
11:56station, it's not the one where we were 5 or 6, no, no, no, now we're in the thick of it,
12:02and so I think to myself, well, this is cool, you see, at least we're going to be able to meet new
12:06people, chat, make friends and so on, I feel like I'm at summer camp, I feel like I'm at summer camp,
12:13this is crazy, so they give us our bags and so on, what size are you, blah blah blah, okay, boom,
12:20I turn around in a dorm, and this this time, there are quite a few French speakers, there are even some
12:25French people who, before joining the Legion, entered their first class in the regular French army,
12:30and I'm starting to sympathize with them, and especially with a Malagasy guy, and I get really
12:34mad at him, because the guy is a black belt judo fighter, and in fact, as soon as a guy speaks badly
12:39to him or tries to tease him, bam, he throws him, and it makes me laugh, because he doesn't do it
12:44meanly, you know, he just does it because the others piss him off, you know, and he's tough,
12:49he's muscular, and honestly we have an excellent friendship, a bond even though we barely know each other
12:53other, and in a way, he reminds me of an old friend from high school, you know, and we get along
12:58really well, and I'm also starting to sympathize with other guys, guys from out of town, and so on
13:03and so forth, and as we talk, we realize that we don't know who is who, because at the time,
13:09the foreign legion had a bad reputation, uh, the reputation, you know, of accepting anything
13:17and everything, former convicts, I don't know, guys wanted by Interpol and so on, so it's true
13:25that in the dormitory or in the fort in general, there is a certain atmosphere, a bit of paranoia,
13:30this is really a phrase that comes up often, it's that we don't know who is who, we don't
13:35know who we're dealing with, and I'm quite sociable and I start talking to everyone,
13:41and I realize that I'm surrounded by former marines, guys from the Venezuelan special forces,
13:47he was a guy who weighed 1.85, 120 kilograms but was nice, super nice, at least from what I
13:52saw, super nice, but the guy told me that he's a former special forces fighter, he has lots of
13:57tattoos and so on, I'm also starting to talk to a former Russian professional boxer, but
14:02some say he's a former mafia man, anyway, let's just say that rumors spread fast and everyone
14:07does their bit, you know, but I realize that there's still a good atmosphere, there's still
14:12a good atmosphere because we're pretty close-knit, we laugh a lot, there's a good friendship,
14:16we all eat together, we wake up at the same time, we go to bed at the same time, we do exactly
14:21the same activities, so in fact, this family spirit, this cohesion, is something that I
14:26really appreciated, and then one day, we're all called for the medical examination, we
14:30all find ourselves naked in our underwear in a waiting room where it's freezing, and that's
14:35when you see people's physical appearance, because there are some, you know, when they're
14:39dressed, okay, you don't see what I mean, you can't really tell the physical characteristics
14:43and so on, and then, you see, there are guys, they're monsters and everything, you say, hey,
14:48I don't stand a chance, I just came out of a mass gain, you know, at 73 or 74 kilograms
14:52in mass gain, imagine that, and then the guys, they weigh 95 or 100 kilograms, but I tell myself
14:57that in any case, it's not necessarily the musculature, the muscle volume that will make
15:01you a good legionnaire or not, it can help, of course, but that's not all, and so we file
15:06past one after the other, uh, to the doctor and it's my turn and in fact the doctor makes
15:11me go in and makes me stand on a kind of scale to take my weight and check that I don't
15:15have, how shall I say, flat feet, apparently, it's an eliminatory criterion, because it
15:21seems to me that if you want to become a paratrooper and you have flat feet, I think
15:25it's eliminatory, because like, you tend, when you fall, you know, to distribute the
15:30pressure badly, and you can break a hip or something like that, anyway, from what I
15:34understand, and then, they made me do, you know, a sort of electrocardiogram and quite
15:39a few people were rejected because of that, including the guy from the Venezuelan Special
15:44Forces, they found a heart murmur or something like that, and so, he was eliminated from the
15:50start, from the very beginning, and so everything went well and so on, so, I passed the medical
15:58examination with flying colors, so to speak, and one day, we were all transferred south
16:03to Obain, so here, Obain again, it's once again, uh, a selection post for the foreign legion,
16:10and we go there by TGV again and we all go together, there's a good atmosphere and so
16:14on and there I, I, I make friends with a civilian, so to speak, a civilian, I thought I was already
16:20an army guy, I said to my friend, hey, I'm going to ask the guy over there to lend me
16:25his phone so I can call my wife, because it was forbidden, you know, and so I go to
16:29see him and I tell him, is there a way you can lend me your phone, he says to me, why
16:33do that, I say, I have to call my wife and everything, basically, I'm with the legion and
16:36so on, so we don't have a phone at all, quote, he says, yeah, no problem, no problem, and
16:40so luckily I had memorized my wife's phone number, I call him and everything says, hello,
16:44who is this, I say, yeah, who do you want it to be, Wesh, it's me, I'm on the battlefield,
16:47it's shooting, it's shooting, charging like B, charging, so, that's not true, I say, listen,
16:52I'm on the train heading to Obain, everything's going well, okay, so there you have it, if you
16:56don't hear from me in three weeks, that means I'll be at Castel Nodari on the farm, basically,
17:01if you like, the Obain selection post takes us directly to Castel Nodari, and so,
17:06I hang up and I give the guy his phone number again, I thank him and so on, we arrive at
17:11Aine and, uh, well, there's nothing really new except that it's a bit warmer, uh, it's
17:17nice, uh, it's really hot, and the physical, uh, household chores continue, we have to carry
17:22big, big things, it's all physical chores, carrying boxes, doing it's doing this, making
17:27sure everything shines, preparing food, doing this, really, we have all sorts of tasks and
17:32so we don't get bored, the day starts at 6am and ends at 7am but we're exhausted but it's
17:39good fatigue and then come the psychometric tests, so we're, we're divided into groups
17:44and we each take turns going into a room, like a CD room, a computer room, etc. We're
17:49on a computer and we have to fill out a form, so logic test questions, etc. After that, quit
17:55a few of them were eliminated, especially my Malagasy friend, the Jadoka, I was disgusted,
18:00I said to him, I knew you were stupid, and in fact, when it happens like that, you're
18:04not eliminated for life, you have a 6 month deadline to respect, and I found out later
18:09that he came back 6 months later and that he had passed the test and that he had become
18:13a legionnaire, and so I passed the psychometric test. We still have 3 days to go and then comes
18:19the physical test, so the physical test, as I told you, what is it, it's the Luc Leger
18:24test, so endurance, and uh, and there, I was shocked, I was surprised because guys who had
18:29a physique carved from stone, in the end they had 0 endurance and yet they were quite lean,
18:35so that means absolutely nothing. So I managed to reach level 14 or 15, I think the minimum
18:41was 11 or 12, I don't remember the exact criteria, but I passed the Luc Leger test and I continued
18:47with the pull ups and so I managed to validate 4 or 5. So I'm pretty proud of myself, I tell
18:53myself, well wait, it's on the page, I'm going to become a legionnaire, that's cool,
18:57I'm finally going to move on to the next step. I forgot that there was another step called
19:04the security test, the interview test. In the industry, they called it the Gestapo.
19:12I still don't understand why, but later on I think there was a little nod that actually
19:17made sense. Basically, it's a security test.
19:21So first, you're asked to pee, so to urinate in a jar to see if you're not consuming anything
19:28illicit substances. Well, after that, it's easy to cheat, right? There you go. But anyway,
19:33in my case, I didn't smoke, I didn't drink alcohol, I didn't smoke shisha, nothing, absolutely
19:37nothing. And so, well, I passed that. And then, you take an interview with a high-ranking
19:42officer of the Foreign Legion who asks you all sorts of questions.
19:45First, your first and last name, your age, and your motivation. Why do you want to join
19:52the Foreign Legion? Then your family situation, then your professional situation. And when
19:57the question about my professional situation comes up, I tell him, well, actually, I'm a
20:02student, I was currently studying for a degree in cinema, and then he gets confused.
20:09He says, but wait, I don't understand because most of the guys who came just before you,
20:14the guys have no situation, no level of education, no diploma, nothing.
20:23I can understand that, but I don't understand you. You're an enigma, I really don't understand.
20:30What makes you want to join the Legion when you can get a degree, a higher education,
20:34have a job and live, so to speak, your quiet civilian life? Quote, and then I explained it to
20:40him. I said that I don't necessarily like my studies, I need excitement, I need adrenaline.
20:45I don't know, I don't feel it, he's quite skeptical. He said to me, but where do you live now? I said,
20:51in a university residence hall because he told me, if you ever join the Legion, it's for five years.
20:55They're minimum five-year contracts. How's your stuff going to be at the residence hall and so on?
20:59Single quote. I said, yeah, well, it's not a big deal, I left some stuff behind. It's not a problem,
21:04it's just clothes. Single quote. And in fact, there were quite a few things that went wrong during
21:08the interview, including the accommodation, the university residence hall, my degree, anyway,
21:13he didn't understand. I'm pretty confidant, you know, I thought, well, he'll probably understand
21:18my motivation. I don't know, it's not that bad. If I want to drop out of school, I can.
21:23And a third important point, he said, but do you currently have a visa? Oh, I said, no,
21:29I have a residence permit. He said to me, but how are you going to renew your residence
21:34allowed? Because at the time, he was as a student. I said, well, I don't know, because you have to
21:39know that the others who came, they all had long-term visas, so to speak. And so there are
21:45quite a few things that are wrong, you see. He said to me, oh, okay, okay, so I go back to my
21:51friends, I tell them, how did it go for you? He tells me, yeah, I don't know, I don't really feel
21:55it. He tells me, you, well, yeah, same thing and everything. Well, in any case, the officer isn't
21:59going to tell you yes or no right away, you know, he's going to deliberate with his colleagues
22:03and so on and so forth. So, we find ourselves, uh, in a big courtyard like that, like in prison,
22:07you know, we're talking and so on. There, I see a guy, he keeps looking for me, yet, I consider him
22:12a friend, you know, and I don't know, from a distance, he throws stones at me and everything,
22:16you know, kid stuff, even though he was my age, he was even a little older, you know. I say,
22:20can't you see that you're starting to annoy me? I say, oh, stop yours, and he doesn't want to,
22:24he throws quail at me or pushes me and everything. I say, are we in a playground or something?
22:28And he doesn't understand. And I had two or three years of MMA in my background and it came in handy
22:34that day because I did a rear naked choke on him. My friend fell asleep, it was incredible. Oh,
22:39he snored. And after that, I became my best friend. And by the way, I learned years later
22:44that he actually became a legionnaire. He had been recruited by the legion, he had passed all his
22:49interviews and he had even become a paratrooper in the second rep, in Corsica. So it's still,
22:54it's important to know that it's a very prestigious section of the foreign legion.
22:58I don't remember his name, Johan, Jan, Yannick. I don't remember but he was very, very good. Very,
23:04very good. A bit of an idiot but he was good at what he did. You see, the day of the liberations
23:09arrived. So when you give the result, well, same thing, we line up in a column and so on.
23:15The greeting blah blah blah. Always clean shaven. If you're not shaved, you're dead. Oh,
23:19if you're not shaved, you're in trouble. And with the razor, not the clippers, I don't know what else.
23:27And so, releases arrive and it's my turn, they call me, I say to myself, ah, they're calling me
23:33and they're calling lots of other people, you see. And in the end, they tell me, well, refuse.
23:41I say, what? I didn't believe it. I say, but wait, but I succeeded in everything. I don't understand.
23:47And in fact, among the group in which we were refused, I am summoned by the adult and I am the
23:54only one summoned by the adult and he tells me, sit down and so on. Super nice, very polite and so on.
24:01A French person? No, he's not a foreign French speaker, really a French person. And then he said
24:06to me, he said, well, actually, it's not a definitive name. What I suggest is that you finish
24:11your studies first and then join the Legion. Quote, I said, why would you do that? He said to me,
24:17when you get a degree, you skip the steps. Instead of starting as a non-commissioned officer,
24:21you can start as an officer straight away and so on. Quote, but when he talks to me,
24:24I don't listen to him. I'm disgusted because that was kind of my goal.
24:31For me, it was my only hope of finding some semblance of an active life. I don't know of
24:37any usefulness. I'm disgusted. I'm depressed. He said to me, yeah, I'm sorry. I understand that
24:43you might be disappointed, but you'll thank me later. Ah, at that moment, I was like,
24:47yeah, okay, okay. I shook his hand. I shook the hand of the corporal and then we got on a bus
24:52and they took us back to Marseille, to the Marseille TGV station. And just before leaving,
24:57they gave us an envelope and we opened it and I found some money because for a month that I was,
25:02so to speak, like, recruiting, free recruiting by the Foreign Legion, well, uh, those were days of,
25:08of, of work, so to speak. So, uh, I thought I had collected the sum of 350, bro. And with that sum,
25:15you know what I did? I went to Micromania at the Marseille train station. I think it's a Micromania
25:22and I bought the latest Nintendo 3DS. It's not even for me. I gave it to my wife. Go ahead, here,
25:29now and so on. Sorry because I left for a month for nothing. Here I am. I came back like a
25:34loser. I was disgusted. But somewhere, I tell myself, fortunately, sometimes God closes a door
25:42to open others. That was exactly the case because thanks to this refusal, well I was able to continue
25:48my studies and then what did I do? YouTube. So somewhere, if I had joined the Foreign Legion,
25:55there would never have been my YouTube channel, Blard, NS, Garrus Mod, GTRP and so on and so forth.
26:04So in the end, I only remember the good things about this experience because it taught me
26:10discipline, respect and also a certain hygiene of life. And honestly, thank you. Thank you to
26:18the Legion. Thank you to the Army for teaching me so much that it's like he's doing dedications.
26:23But honestly, it made me happy because it made me want to do something with my life again.
26:29There you have it. I got rejected but somehow I managed to bounce back and create something else.
26:34So the moral of this story is that I may have been rejected by the Legion but in any case I did
26:40Vietnam and that made me happy. So subscribe and leave a little like, kisses, the know, it rocks, brah.
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