France Regarding Wearing Medals with Attachments

[Tim B]

Since collecting French and Belgian awards, I've noticed on several examples where the attachments have been rotated on the ribbon once it was faded. Was this common practice?

I've also noticed several times where the attachments have been repositioned and assume this is due to subsequent awards where stars or palms have been added to the ribbon. Did the French and Belgian customarily use only the original ribbon or did they ever replace the ribbons on their medals so the appearance was kept up?

Here's a recent example on a French Cross of Valor. You can see the reverse shows where the stars were originally.

Tim

[Tim B]

Here's the inside of the ribbon and you can see the shadows where the stars used to be. So, the ribbon was turned inside out and the stars moved at some point.

Tim