In August 1914, the Melbourne-based vice-consul for France received the telegram from the French government announcing general mobilisation. As French law imposed compulsory military service, even for citizens residing abroad, he was instructed to set in motion the call up of all those Frenchmen living in his jurisdiction. However, the attestation papers of French-born members of the AIF show that among these, many chose instead to join the volunteer army of their adopted country. Although the first AIF was composed predominantly of men of British or Anglo-Celtic heritage, it also included men from many ethnic and national backgrounds. Studies of cultural diversity in the AIF have included German Anzacs by John Williams, Russian Anzacs by Elena Govor and more recently the work of Karen Agutter. Yet the nature of the French presence in the AIF is less well known. Drawing on both French and Australian sources, this paper asks what drove their choices and what do they reveal about the nature of the French community in Australia during the war? My work combines the national and the transnational, and in this presentation, I also take a microhistory approach, with some individual case studies illustrating the diversity of these French diggers.