Lycée Saint-Louis
Lycée Saint-Louis
The lycée Saint-Louis is a post-secondary school located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, in the Latin Quarter. It is the only public French lycée exclusively dedicated to classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles (CPGE, the preparatory classes for the Grandes Écoles such as Ecole Polytechnique, Centrale Paris, ESSEC Business School or HEC Paris). It is known for the quality of its teaching and the results it achieves in their intensely competitive entrance examinations (concours).
History: the Collège d'Harcourt
Until 1820, the lycée Saint-Louis was named Collège d'Harcourt.[1] (Latin: Collegio Harcuriano) At the time of its founding it was meant to be a residence for students of the University of Paris. The Collège d'Harcourt was founded in 1280 by Robert and Raoul d'Harcourt to offer food and lodgings to some forty impoverished students. It was not originally a teaching establishment, but this became an increasingly important part of its function over the years.
In the 18th century, it was a stronghold of Jansenists and produced several of the philosophes and Encyclopédistes.
The original building was demolished in 1795 and the present one erected on its site in 1814.
In the course of the 19th century, the lycée was successively a prison, barracks and reformatory.
Notable alumni
Joseph Bertrand (1822–1900), mathematician, Academician
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711), writer, Academician
Fortuné du Boisgobey (1821–1891), writer
Georges Charpak (1924–2010), physicist, Nobel Prize 1992
Hubert Curien (1924–2005), physicist, former Minister of Research
Denis Diderot (1713–1784), writer and philosopher
Charles-François Dupuis (1742–1809), author
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932–2007), physicist, Nobel Prize 1991
Charles Gounod (1818–1893), composer
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848–1907), novelist and art critic
Eugène Marin Labiche (1815–1888), dramatist
Louis Néel (1904–2000), physicist, Nobel Prize 1970
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), chemist and microbiologist, Academician
Charles Perrault (1628–1703), writer, Academician
Jean Racine (1639–1699), dramatist, Academician
Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922–2008), writer and cinematographer, Academician
Alexandre Rousselin de Saint-Albin (1773–1847), politician
Charles de Saint-Évremond (1613–1703), writer
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944), writer and aviator
Claude Simon (1913–2005), writer, Nobel Prize 1985
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838), statesman
Yves Tanguy (1900–1955), surrealist painter
René Thom (1923–2002), mathematician, Fields Medal 1958
Ahmed Vefik Pasha (1823–1891), Ottoman statesman, diplomat, and playwright
André Weil (1906–1998), mathematician
Émile Zola (1840–1902), writer
Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867), writer
Montesquieu (1689–1755), writer and philosopher
Claude Allègre, former Minister, geochemist
Henri Lebesgue (1875-1941), mathematician