On the road to vacation, they will not go unnoticed.

With their headscarves, their songs of cohesion and their massive backpacks, the scouts and scouts of France set off again for new adventures.

Considered corny by some, they are still on the rise, 115 years after their creation.

But what is scouting?

"The school of life to live together", answers Patrick, former scouts of Europe 1st of Issy-Les-Moulineaux.

Many of our readers have fond childhood memories of these summers in nature.

Ben, a scout aged 10 to 24, experienced "resourcefulness, learning to be independent, solidarity, nature".

This "pure Parisian", who salutes the social mix of the camps, discovered each July "France and its countryside".

And icing on the cake, he met the one who is now his wife.

He is now looking forward to his children "being old enough to join the movement and put on the shirt and the scarf".

Once a scout, forever a scout

Virginie, a scout aged 12 to 25, is also eager to share with her family this universe rich in "solid and fundamental" values, "eternal friendships", "improbable adventures" and international and departmental encounters. .

Incredible moments like that of Marikat: “On July 21, 1969, I was in a guide camp in Névache and all night long, we listened to the radio to tell about this extraordinary moment when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon”.

Trying out scouting sometimes means adopting it for many years, like Christophe who will be doing his 52nd camp in August and invites us to visit him in the Cévennes.

Guillemette was a guide last summer.

"It's rare to have, at 17, the responsibility of raising young girls and teaching them to live in nature while improving their character," says the ex-chief.

She cherishes the vigils, the collapsed tents and this love of nature that she has experienced for the past nine years.

"Each new camp is a discovery, where each and everyone is a sister or a brother to be protected, to be supervised", according to Jean-Philippe, who pays tribute to the memory of his former troop leader, whose lessons were taught to him. "incredibly useful" in his personal and professional lives.

self discovery

Beyond the nostalgia for beautiful times past and the beauty of our regions, there is a whole phase of learning that has marked former Cubs and Cubs.

Nine learned to know himself better, to “discover the world from another perspective, people differently”.

This 16-year-old city girl – who would never have imagined it possible – is back this year, “heading to the Morvan populated by its many cows and fewer inhabitants”.

During these summers, François-Xavier, 46, “learned to listen, observe, obey and grow”.

There not only "blossomed his personality and his character", but also his faith within his Catholic movement.

It is thanks to scouting that Marie and Baptiste came out of their shell, opened up to others and are more comfortable in public.

Be careful, not everything is always rosy.

After nine years of scouting, Pio hung up the day when his Scouts de France leaders "took advantage of a 'spiritual time' to read to us the position of the Catholic Church on homosexuality".

A betrayal for the teenager he was at the time and who asked himself many questions.

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