In 1914 the French national day, 14 July, was celebrated as usual with military parades, and in Nancy, the capital of the province of Lorraine, the élite XX Corps performed that duty. Nancy was the former capital of the Duchy of Lorraine and, following the amputation of a large portion of the province in 1871, the elegant town lay close to the new German border. In case of war XX Corps had the task of covering that sector of the frontier with Germany as the French army mobilised to meet the threat from across the Rhine. Since August 1913, the corps commander was General Ferdinand Foch. He had reached the highest rank in the army, divisional general, in 1911, and when he reached his sixty-third birthday on 2 October 1914 he would be just two years short of the retirement age for generals. He had no experience at all of commanding troops in battle. Indeed, he had little experience of command, since most of his prewar career had been spent in staff appointments or, most famously, as an instructor.