French Mounted Constabulary Officers Sabre?

[Radboud]

Great sword you have there Cathey. I had a look in my book on Gendarmerie arms, but unfortunately several of the earlier types listed don't have a corresponding image. Although the impression I get is that they typically carried standard army swords most of the time.

I personally don't think this is mounted constabulary, the blade is too broad for a cut down cavalry sabre, I'd say it's an infantry sword. Other than that it's difficult to pin down, there is a remarkable amount of variation in French swords of the mid 18th to early 19th Century. If I was to guess though, I'd date your sword to pre First Empire because of the flat un-fullered blade.

Here are a couple of pages from 'Les Sabres portes par L'Armee Francaise' by Jean L'Hoste and Patrick Resek:

(P.S. Don't feel bad about struggling to translate the French texts, my wife is French and she struggles to translate the books for me as well. Constantly needing to read extra to get the context correct.)