I have seen them. They don't dress like the police. They don't dress like the military. They seem to be a separate force. And they have the best weapons. Full auto rifles and anti-tank shoulder fired stuff.
Can someone educate me?
Unlike the majority of units listed in this section, GIGN, while taking its orders from the Ministry of Defense, is a part of the police force, rather than the military. As such, they are endowed with the power of arrest and are often called upon to conduct operations against non-terrorist criminals. This situation poses an interesting challenge for the Gendarmes. On one hand, their rules of engagement are altered with regularity. One set of parameters guides their operations against civilian criminals, while another comes into play when France is confronted by violent terrorists. On the other hand, the unit has engaged in hundreds of operations since its inception in 1973 and has accumulated a great deal of practical experience. Because of this, they are frequent hosts to members of other groups such as the United States’ Delta Force and Germany’s GSG-9. In one well-publicized case, GIGN members advised the Saudi National Guard prior to their assault on the terrorist-held Grand Mosque in Mecca. GIGN commandos are cross-trained in a variety of specialties, including scuba diving, sniping, parachuting, and explosives. GIGN is also known to make use of dogs in certain operations, although details on this aspect of their organization are sketchy. Prior to 1994, GIGN had made its name in Djibouti when, in 1976, its commandos rescued 29 schoolchildren from Somalian terrorists. This accomplishment was overshadowed in terms of publicity when former members of the terrorist group Armed Islamic Group (AIG) hijacked an Air France airliner.
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/France/GIGN/default.htm
They are the serious dudes.