Battles & Bivouacs: A French soldier's note-book

An unvarnished notebook opens on a crisp August morning in 1914, when a young French soldier boards a crowded train bound for the front. The pages pulse with the nervous chatter of strangers turned comrades, the clatter of wheels and the wistful “Vive la France!” that echo through the compartment. As the journey unfolds, he records the mix of youthful optimism, quiet fear, and the small comforts—water, wine, a shared photograph—that help steady a nation on the brink of war.

Soon the notebook follows him into the fields of Lorraine and the first shallow trenches, where the reality of battle begins to replace the romance of enlistment. He writes with candid detail about the heat, the constant buzz of artillery, and the fleeting moments of humanity that surface amid the bombardments. Through his honest reflections, listeners hear the early days of the Great War as lived by an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances.