They have a pretty good program for retired Legionnaires, many of which have no family or even no country to return to.
For some these poor souls, leaving the legion is like leaving a job, a family, a country and a neighborhood all at the same time. It is a real whammy.
Some of these people can't seem to adapt, some wind up in prison and God only knows where else.
In 1954 the Legion realized this and purchased a villa of some sort in what was proved to be a great spot for growing grapes and making wine. It's manned by a number of retirees that make a pretty good wine that is commercially available to the public.
They take in former retired legionnaires to work the vineyards and man both a book binding and ceramic shop there. The wine, ceramics and bound books are sold commercially to the public and the proceeds are used to support the project.
It is actually a win/win situation.
It gives these man a home and something to do in his old age.
It's a lot more of a personal type of thing than just sending someone a check.
Then again, the Legion has a different sort of situation to deal with than the US services do. We don't have 'orphans' that have left everything behind to serve. Most of out GIs are Americans and upon retirement most start second careers here.
Still, it seems to work for France.
Here's a link to an article about this.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/french-foreign-legion-wine
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this:
http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
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