clogs. By 1906, aged eight years old, he had saved enough money to buy a railway ticket to Paris, which he considered "paradise." To travel to the capital of France, he walked to the nearest train station at Piacenza. He could not speak French, but found work as a chimney sweep in Nogent-sur-Marne and later as a paper boy in Paris. He obtained a work permit at age 13. World War I In August 1914, aged 16, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Ponticelli was assigned to the 4th Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment of the French Foreign Legion. He had lied about his age to enlist. He rediscovered his older brother, Céleste Ponticelli, who had joined the same regiment. According to Ponticelli, France had done much for him, and serving was his way of showing his gratitude. He served at Soissons in Picardy, northeast France, and at Douaumont, near Verdun. Ponticelli worked at digging burial pits and trenches. In keeping a promise to Céleste to always assist others, he rescued a German and a French soldier who were wounded in the arm and leg, respectively. Ponticelli was not a French citizen and in May 1915, when Italy entered the war, he was conscripted into the Italian Army. Although he attempted to remain with his French regiment, he eventually enlisted in the 3rd Alpini Regiment, after being escorted to Turin by two gendarmes. Ponticelli saw service against the Austro-Hungarian Army at Mount Piccolo on the Austria–Italy border. At his new post as a machine gunner, Ponticelli was seriously wounded by a shell during an assault on an Austrian mountain position. He was returned to his post after rest and recuperation in Naples. In an undated interview, he described being injured: "Blood was running into my eyes... I continued firing despite my wound." Once, his regiment ceased fighting the Austrians for three weeks. The armies, who mostly spoke each other's tongue, swapped loaves of bread for tobacco and photographed each other. In 1918 Ponticelli was gassed in an Austrian attack that killed hundreds of his fellow soldiers. Reflecting on war, he said: "You shoot at men who are fathers. War is completely stupid." In one of his last interviews, Ponticelli stated he was amazed at his own survival. Ponticelli Frères After being demobilized in 1920, Ponticelli founded a metal work company with Céleste and Bonfils, his youngest