Every December in France you’ll see the French firemen, or pompiers, selling their annual calendar to raise money for their non-profit association, ADOSSPP (Association pour le développement des œuvres sociales des sapeurs-pompiers de Paris), which provides assistance to injured fire fighters, as well as their families in case of death. As the French fire fighters are part of the French military, the calendars are rather…professional. You will see images of the fire fighters at work, putting out the flames, saving lives, in training exercises, etc.
I’ve seen two different covers, not sure if they’re the same inside.
I like to follow the Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris on Facebook because they always post photos and videos of their work. I should warn you the remains of burn-out houses and apartments are depressing, but you also get some pretty cool stuff, like this amazing rescue of an injured tourist in the dome at Sacré Coeur Basilica and needed to be taken out through the windows in a stretcher. You can watch one of their training videos to see what kind of physical strength and endurance is required of all fire fighters (note: they’re not all firemen; women make up 8% of the French fire brigade, or about 14,000 total).
If you would like your own 2016 Calendrier des Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris, and you haven’t run into any firemen selling them at the market, you can simply stop by any caserne in Paris to buy them direct. Here is a map of all of the fire stations in Paris and immediate suburbs.
It should be said that the French buy these calendars to support the fire fighters, not because they’re very interesting calendars. Or rather, not very exciting. But now there is a new calendar by Pompiers sans Frontiers (Fire Fighters without Borders), a French NGO that responds to humanitarian crises around the world as well as working with at-risk and vulnerable populations in France. To raise money and awareness for their work, they have come out with a très chaud calendar featuring the sexiest firemen photographed by Fred Goudon and published by Flammarion.
See some of the sexy “making of” videos here (not particularly suitable for work). You can find these calendars at FNAC in Paris, or order your copy online here (worldwide shipping available).
The calendar I bought looked nothing like this hottie! But the guys are so cute on the street corners who can resist.