First three field trips for auditors at the 3rd national session

Published on :

20 September 2023

Immediately after their return to Paris at the Ecole Militaire, the 283 auditors travelled to several locations in France for visits according to their major: Grenoble, Valence, Penthièvre and Collioure.

The Defence Policy (PolDef) auditors headed for Collioure (Pyrénées-Orientales), where they received a warm welcome from the mayor, Guy Llobet. At dawn the following day, after the ceremony of the colours on the parade ground of Fort Miradou, instructors from the Centre national d'entraînement commando-1er régiment de Choc.

Their fellow students in the Economic Defence and Security (DSE) and Digital Sovereignty and Cybersecurity (SNC) majors visited two towns in the Dauphiné region. First to Grenoble (Isère), at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies (CEA) to attend lectures on energy management. Then the next day, there was a cohesion sequence at the 1st Spahis regiment in Valence (Drôme), with various physical activities, obstacle courses and tests to give them a glimpse of the soldiers' daily lives. A concert by the Spahis band brought this immersion in the regiment to a harmonious close.

Meanwhile, students on the Maritime Issues and Strategies (MIS) and Defence Armaments and Economics (DEA) courses were in the west of France, in Brittany to be precise. At Fort Penthièvre, in Vannes (Morbihan), instructors from the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment gave them a crash course in abseiling, beam climbing, wall climbing, etc.

A presentation of the 3rd RIMA by Colonel Arnaud COMESSE followed by a question-and-answer session gave all the participants an insight into the missions of the "Big Three". All the participants, especially those from overseas, expressed their great satisfaction with these two days of cohesion.

In all three cases, these physical activities were not compulsory, but most of the participants made the effort to take part - an invaluable way of helping them to get to know each other better and strengthening cohesion between them!