COBI French Gendarme Figure Keyring Set 1366

A COBI minifigure of a French gendarme in printed uniform, fixed to a matching brick with a metal chain and keyring. The connection points are glued so it survives daily use.

A gendarme is a soldier

This is the thing visitors to France consistently get wrong. The Gendarmerie nationale is not a police force in the ordinary sense — it is a branch of the French armed forces, and its members hold military rank.

France has two policing organisations. The Police nationale is civilian, answers to the interior ministry, and works in cities and large towns. The Gendarmerie is military, has historically answered to the defence ministry, and covers rural areas and small towns — which is about half the population and the overwhelming majority of the land.

The arrangement goes back to the maréchaussée of the Ancien Régime and survived the Revolution, which renamed it rather than abolishing it. Several other countries copied the model: Italy's Carabinieri, Spain's Guardia Civil, the Dutch Marechaussee.

So a gendarme investigating a burglary in a village is a member of the armed forces doing police work — and if you break down on a rural road in France, the person who stops is a soldier.

In the COBI range

One of a series of sixteen figure keyrings from the Historical Collection. Set 1373 is the retail display holding the full assortment. Set 24654 is an Alfa Romeo of the Italian Carabinieri, who work on the same principle.

Specifications

Contents: one minifigure on a brick with metal chain and keyring · Glued connection points · Printed detail