Soldiers at play - Musée de la Grande Guerre
Temporary exhibition

09 September 2023 > 19 August 2024

Free access
during museum hours
On the forecourt of the museum

Soldiers at play

An exhibition of photographs that immerses you in the world of sports during the war!

Commando training, obstacle courses and press-ups come to mind whenever you think of the military today, which is highly associated with sport.

But how has the teaching of sport in the armed forces evolved over the last century or so? What new practices have developed during major contemporary conflicts, and what exercises do soldiers engage in nowadays in difficult operational conditions? From the Great War to today’s overseas operations, from gymnastics to muscle training, this exhibition sheds light on how the training of soldiers, driven as ever by the values of brotherhood, commitment and determination, has evolved over the years.

In partnership with

The Établissement de Communication et de Production Audiovisuelle de la Défense (ECPAD) is the Ministry for the Armed Forces’ audiovisual archives centre. Its collections bear witness to more than 180 years of history, and include some 15 million photographs and 100,000 hours of footage. Many archive documents can be consulted at imagesdefense.gouv.fr.