I have taken an interest in collecting foreign legion badges and insignia and was wondering is there any books or other information about them, and where to purchase them from

There are several books dealing with uniforms and equipment used by the Legion that also have information on badges, usually per conflict. Some are in English, some in French. Authors are Raymond Guyader and Eric Adam, among others. The magazine 'Gazette des Uniformes' also publishes books with articles from their publication on certain subjects.

 

I would start with Amazon, and eBay France if you can read some French.

Thank you for the info

Here is a starter book on French Foreign Legion badges that I would recommend.  It has color photos of the front of each badge unfortunately no photos of the back which is important.  It is mostly in English with the specific units in both French and English.  It gives you era, rarity, name of manufacture, theater made or not, if it was ever restruck, and any patent numbers.  There is even a basic write up in the back on how to date French badges.  However there are a lot of really convincing fake French badges on the market so you have to be careful.  There are also restrikes of these badges which look like the real McCoy.  The latest really good counterfeiter I was made aware of lives in Thailand.  Initially I wouldn't spend a great deal of money on any one French Foreign Legion badge until you learn how to distinguish between genuine badges and  fake badges.