Le Garde Chauvin is a Napoleonic Association in Charente. Members seek to bring history to life by donning the uniforms of military naval workers, sailors and Marins de la Garde of the First Empire.

The association was created in 1986 by three history buffs:
Messrs Jean-Noël MARTIN, Patrick FOULQUIER and Daniel DIEU.

The word chauvin originates from one of the bravest soldiers of the Republic and the Empire, "Nicolas CHAUVIN" , his real name "Jean PETY" , born in LALINDE, in the Dordogne.

He would have enlisted in 1788, at the age of 18, in the Regiment de Bourgogne (which would become the 59th Regiment d'Infanterie de Ligne in 1791), to which the famous "Battery of Fearless Men" belonged. seat of Toulon, and partly composed of Rochefortais .

According to ARAGO , he would have done all the campaigns of the Empire, received seventeen wounds, "all in front", had three fingers amputated, a fractured shoulder, the forehead horribly mutilated, and obtained, as a price for his services , a saber of honor, the red ribbon and two hundred francs pension.

The association is awarded the 2008 "Jehan de Latour de Geay" prize from the Académie de Saintonge.

Association Law 1901 - N ° 0172003111 of 02 14 1991
Headquarters 44, rue Pierre & Marie Curie 17300 ROCHEFORT.
Postal address: 14 rue des Ouches 17620 ECHILLAIS
Exhibition space: La Chapelle des Ouvriers & Marins, 50 rue Touffaire, 17300 ROCHEFORT