The Rochambelles

There were thirty of them. Thirty women in an army that hadn't made any provision for them. In 1944, the Rochambelles, the only all-female unit on the Allied front, landed in Normandy and participated in the liberation of France. A true epic, long kept in the shadows. Valérie Demay was seventeen when she first heard it. One Sunday, Jacqueline, her grandmother Gabrielle's teammate, both Rochambelles, both decorated with the Croix de Guerre, told her this story as if she had lived it the day before. She was ninety years old. Years later, Valérie Demay turned it into a play. It all begins in New York in 1939. Jacqueline, in exile, meets Florence Conrad, an eccentric American who has the audacious idea of creating the first all-female ambulance unit for the front lines. Jacqueline enlists. Unbeknownst to her, she enters history. On stage, Merryl Beaudonnet and Charlotte Bigeard take on the challenge of total immersion. Metallic set design, electronic music, and intense choreography: the show doesn't recreate the war, it makes you feel it. A triumph at the 2025 Avignon Off Festival, the play arrives in Paris carried by a powerful physical energy, what the directors call "sisterhood."

DID YOU KNOW?

The Rochambelles went through the entire war unarmed. Integrated into General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division, they landed at Utah Beach, liberated Paris, fought in Alsace, and advanced to Berchtesgaden, Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Two of them lost their lives there.

THÉÂTRE MICHEL, 75008
From September 25th
Wed. to Sat. at 7pm, Sun. at 3:30pm
€22 to €44 - Reduced price: €10 for those under 26
Tue. to Thurs. at the box office 1 hour before the performance, subject to availability