Christian
Christian was born and raised by the sea in Brittany. From early childhood he was immersed in the history of the 1st and 2nd World Wars. As soon as he was old enough, he was able to listen to the stories of family members who had been involved in these two wars, including the legend of one of his ancestors, a soldier of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. His favourite playgrounds were the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall and the concrete mooring of the German battleship Bismarck, around which he frequently went sailing. At the age of 10, he was lucky enough to fly in a naval aviation helicopter, which 10 years later gave him the motivation to become an aviator in the French Navy.
After acquiring his wings as an aviator specializing in radar and electronic warfare, he accumulated 650 hours on various types of aircraft, including a few hours on fighter aircraft and 120 hours in war zones. As an officer, he served on submarines, then on frigates and on an aircraft carrier. He was sent to operations on land, in the former Yugoslavia in 1996 and at sea, off Kosovo in 1999. He then worked as an analyst in a strategic and geopolitical studies agency of the Ministry of Defense before attending the courses of the war college in Paris. Then, he served as a planner and military assistant to the General commanding the French operational staff. It was at this time that he was sent to Chad as military assistant to the General commanding the European Union operation, in the middle of a civil war (2008). He then served in the strategic headquarters in Paris. Finally, he chose to be an instructor at the Yaoundé War college (Cameroon) where he helped train elite African officers from 25 countries and also some American officers.
Christian was subsequently responsible for military, gendarmerie and police cooperation with Latin America and North Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then he was sent for 6 months to a European Union Headquarters in Rome for an operation against human traffickers in the Mediterranean. Later, he joined Lisbon (Portugal) as defense attaché at the French embassy for 3 years. He then chose to spend his last two years as a military advisor to the prefect of the department of “La Manche”, in Saint-Lô, where he had to organize in particular the military ceremonies of D-Day (Sainte-Mère-Eglise, Utah Beach, Carentan, etc.).
Christian is a Knight of the Legion of Honour and was awarded the Order of Military Merit of Portugal.
Passionate about Military History, especially World War II, he absolutely wanted to become a guide of the landing beaches and the Battle of Normandy.