The Legion of Honor of the Invisibles: a story of citizen recognition

The first rays of day break through the shutters of Marie-Anne Barbançon’s house

As usual, she sips tea and savors gouda on bread in front of Telematin. However, his routine is about to be shattered the moment General François Lecointre appears on the screen. With his rosette as Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor pinned to his jacket, the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces announces, on March 6, 2025, the relaunch of the citizens’ initiative, created in 2008 but unusual due to a complex procedure.

Any French person can now recommend a loved one if they judge that they deserve the Legion of Honor. It is enough to send to the Grand Chancellery a text motivated and signed by fifty citizens. Until then, only ministries could propose candidates. The recipients were therefore often from senior administration. “To the criticism of the French: ‘We give the Legion to anyone’, I reply: tell us who you want me to give it to,” invites the general.

Jacqueline, an everyday heroine honored in spite of herself

Sparks crackle in Marie-Anne’s brain. A revelation: she will nominate her mother, Jacqueline, one of the most prolific blood donors in Aquitaine! With 176 donations during her lifetime, she has saved around 500 people – a single donation can save up to three lives. His mother was for a long time president of the donor association of Saint-Georges-d’Oléron (Charente-Maritime).

Marie-Anne has since taken over. She immediately talks to her husband about it: they need to find the fifty signatures. Their quest begins at the deputy’s office, because prestigious signatories always score more. Another day, the couple rushes to the municipal council of their town, pens in their hands – all the councilors of Saint-Georges-d’Oléron emerge. The mayor also agrees to plead their case. She knows Jacqueline, a former municipal employee, well. The initials are quickly found. The file is sent at the end of March.

Marie-Anne did not receive any news until July 13, when she consulted the list of those promoted in the Official Journal. “She got it!” she exclaims while thinking that the trouble is beginning. Because her mother still doesn’t know… And Jacqueline hates putting herself forward. She will also react with amazement, almost with annoyance. “I did not give my blood for honors!” she protests.

Michel, from trampolining to the Legion of Honor

The same day, in Laguiole (Aveyron), Michel Rouquette, 78, delights in the joyful din of the party which precedes the national fireworks display. To promote a cheese cooperative, he offered trampoline demonstrations. He who was one of the three founders of the federation of this sport in 1965 never misses an opportunity to introduce it. His phone rings. He grabbed it absently. It’s the local MP: “Congratulations!” Michel is disconcerted. What does he mean by that? A second message arrives. It is an article in the local press which announces that he will receive the Legion of Honor. Michel believes it’s a hoax. He is stunned. “Why me? I didn’t do anything special. Who could possibly have suggested my name?

We finally learn that the architect of this medal is a friend who also plays “in the trampo”, Michel Bontemps. He calls her. He is ecstatic on the line, as if the decoration had been awarded to him! An admirer of Michel Rouquette since his childhood, the other Michel toyed with the idea of ​​rewarding this pioneer, legend of his sport, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the federation. He had first thought of giving her a cup. A TV report from France 3 relaying General Lecointre’s appeal gave him this even better idea. Fanny, Michel Rouquette’s daughter, found it excellent. She helped him put together the case by discreetly digging through her father’s archives…

Insufficient blood reserves

If Michel Rouquette is surprised for a few minutes, it will take Jacqueline Barbançon fifteen days to digest the news. And gather your strength for the medal presentation. At 90 years old, she is experiencing some health problems. But she will finally be present on September 6, the day of the ceremony, at the town hall of Saint-Georges-d’Oléron. Eighty people flock there: elected officials, former colleagues, friends and family.

Her three children, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren all made the trip. Arms loaded with trays of petit fours for the reception, her daughter breaks through the audience with a radiant smile. Marie-Anne dreamed of this recognition – every opportunity is good to talk about blood donation. When you become an activist for this cause, convincing others becomes an obsession, because you know very well that current donations do not meet national needs: three times more are needed. However, you can only donate blood between four and six times a year, up to the age of 70. We must therefore convince new followers.

“His journey is a lesson”

On the day of the collections, Jacqueline knew how to encourage everyone. “She would go around the offices and point her finger at you and say, ‘You’re going, right? We’re waiting for you.” “Persuasive” but without “authoritarianism or malice,” recalls her friend Régine. Jacqueline had also convinced the town halls to let their employees be absent during the donation. To overcome the remaining reluctance, she even offered donors… jars of homemade jam. Impressed, local political figures had also promised him the Legion of Honor. Without result. This was a second motivation for Marie-Anne: “I didn’t promise anything, but I got the reward,” she thinks with pride. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this decoration represents a wonderful way for her to tell her mother that she loves her.

If Jacqueline developed a passion for blood donation at the age of 18, it was because she realized, she explains in her acceptance speech read by her granddaughter, Alexiane, that “saving a life can start with this simple gesture”. The death of her husband in 1984, following an illness that required transfusions, only strengthened her determination. Just like her Catholic faith, which carries this occasional reader of the Pilgrim to help those who need it. His eyes then fill with tears. Alexiane stops reading for a moment and takes her hand to comfort her. “I’m proud to be your granddaughter,” she tells him several times. She herself became an avid blood donor. “My grandmother encouraged me to do it when I was 19,” she said after the festivities. With kindness, but in such a way that we didn’t dare refuse! She broke stereotypes by becoming one of the first women to head a blood donation association. His journey is a lesson.”

In her speech, Jacqueline minimizes her commitment, which she “considered natural and necessary,” and dedicates her Legion “to this community of blood donation.” Modest to the end, she does not show off her best smile when the decoration is pinned on her jacket, but rather when Régine receives, during the same event, a donor diploma for her hundredth donation. Jacqueline and Régine then kiss each other effusively. “Thank you, my Jaja. Without you, I would never have given so much,” says Régine.

A volunteer who became a coach of champions

On October 2, it is Michel Rouquette’s turn to receive his Legion at the Azur Arena in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes), where a world trampoline event is taking place. Between two warm-ups by the formidable Japanese athletes, the decorated man revises his thanks, his hands trembling. He doesn’t want to forget anyone, and many of them came! And for good reason: this model volunteer, always ready to help, knows a lot of people. Even today, he runs a trampoline club in his Aveyron village, Lacalm, where he was mayor from 2001 to 2020. “He went to get a trampoline in Rodez which he put in the village hall for the sons of farmers to enjoy. That’s it, my father!” Fanny slips, admiring. He also takes care of school buses. The elected officials came to get him because they couldn’t find a driver. Michel did not hesitate. Taking care of children has always amused him. He never considered it a job. Perhaps because this son of Aveyron bistro owners suffered from the fact that his parents, too busy with their business in the Opera district of Paris, lacked time for him.

Admitted to the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (Insep), as a long-distance runner in his youth, Michel Rouquette developed a passion for a strange object recently invented and left on the premises by an American champion: the trampoline. Discipline was then almost non-existent in Europe. Michel Rouquette decides to develop the first French training sessions, asking advice from Insep coaches, filming a British champion to better copy his best movements. With success. The French team he coached won a junior world title in 1970. A European title in 1971. And one of his athletes, Richard Tison, became world champion in 1974 and 1976. Michel Rouquette was praised to the skies. The national center is located in Antibes, where it will train the best French people until 1988.

When passion becomes heritage

Michel will then occupy other positions in the federation. Relentlessly committing himself, he took his apprentices to concerts by Serge Lama or Michel Sardou; made them swim with the dolphins at Marineland; introduced them to canoeing or Formula 1. Michel chased the extraordinary, because he was convinced that this was how his athletes would become extraordinary. No doubt his youthful wanderings in Paris stimulated his imagination, he who admits that he owes his education as much to the customers of the family bistro and the dancers at the Opera as to his family or to school.

On the other hand, his former students consider him a second father. Like Véronique Richer, multiple French trampoline champion in the 1970s, who came to the ceremony. “He made us discover so many things…” she gets lost in her memories. They never lost sight of each other. This October 2, it was the former sports journalist Gérard Holtz who presented him with the Legion. “Tonight we honor “Mr. Trampoline”. Well done Michel!” thunders the former presenter in front of the assembly. He pins the medal on him and the room explodes in applause. Dreaming of performing a backflip, Gérard Holtz achieved it, coached by Michel. They thus became friends. Surprise again! Former American trampoline glories were keen to congratulate him by videoconference: his fame goes beyond France. The hero of the day almost cries.

Like Jacqueline on the other side of France, Michel still can’t believe it. He repeats that he always thought he had done nothing notable in his career, having often heard his teachers repeat that he was good for nothing. Until he finally realized the scope of his commitment by hearing those close to him recount his accomplishments. “It’s incredible,” he thinks, overwhelmed with joy.

The following Monday, Michel found the village schoolchildren on board his bus. And, on Wednesdays, he resumes training the little ones at the trampoline club. At the same time, the Barbançons are taking a family walk. Jacqueline wears her Legion of Honor bar. She now takes it on with pride.