Legion of Honour Legion of Honour The Legion of Honour (full name: National Order of the Legion of Honour; ) is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and retained by all the divergent governments and regimes later holding power in France, up to the present. The order's motto is ' ("Honour and Fatherland"), and its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: ' (Knight), ' (Officer), '
Legion of Honour Officer levels, as a recognition of "extraordinary careers" ("). In 2009, Simone Veil became the first person to enter the Order at Grand Officer level. Veil was a member of the , a former Health Minister and President of the European Parliament, as well as an Auschwitz survivor. She was promoted to Grand Cross in 2012. The acceptance of being awarded the Legion of Honour is not mandatory. The composers Maurice Ravel and Charles Koechlin, for example, declined the award when it was offered to them. While membership in the is technically restricted to French nationals, foreign nationals who have