Le Boudin
"Le Boudin" (), officially "Marche de la Légion Étrangère" (English "March of the Foreign Legion"), is the official march of the Foreign Legion. "Le Boudin" is a reference to boudin, a type of blood sausage or black pudding. "Le boudin" colloquially meant the gear (rolled up in a blanket) that used to be carried atop the backpacks of Legionnaires. Overview The song relates the Legion's feat of arms in Tuyên Quang (1884–1885) and in Camerone (1863), the date of which (April 30) is celebrated as the Legion's anniversary. While the tune was composed prior to the Legion's departure for Mexico in the 1860s, the lyrics were progressively composed after the Franco-Prussian War since Alsatians and Lorrains flocked to the legion after the regions were annexed by Germany. The song makes also repeated reference to the fact that the Belgians are "lazy shirkers", which comes from the fact that Belgian King Leopold II, who wished to remain neutral in the Franco-German conflict, asked the French government not to commit the Belgian Legionnaires into the conflict. France agreed, and the Belgian Legionnaires remained in French Algeria, the Legion's home, to the dismay of the rest of the Legionnaires. The song thus says