Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur

There are many similarities between the two schools: being linked to the Légion d'honneur which inherits from the "Ordre de Saint Louis", being designed for daughters of poor officers or noblemen, being divided in classes identified by a color ribbon, etc.

Napoleon created the Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur to take care of the daughters - among whom many were orphans - of his best soldiers and educate them.

[1] The decree creating the Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur was signed by Napoleon on December 15, 1805, in the Schönbrunn Palace.

She wanted Napoleon to set the school in Saint-Germain, but he chose the "Château d'Écouen", which had been a property of the Légion d'honneur since July 6, 1806.

In a letter dated May 15, 1807, Napoleon described the principles of the education that should be given to the girls :[2] Élevez-nous des croyantes et non des raisonneuses (Bring up for us believers and no thinkers) He required simple studies, aiming to "master vanity, which is the most active passion of the (female) gender" and make the pupils grow up as modest mothers and wives.

[1] On March 25, 1809, Napoleon signed a decree to create a second Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur, in the Basilica of St Denis which had been made property of France in 1790.

[1] In 1962, the Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur closed the school of Écouen and gave the castle to the Ministry of Culture, to make it the National Museum of the Renaissance.

Inaugurated on July 1, 1811, the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur of Saint-Denis was ruled by Madame du Bouzet, the widow of a colonel dead at the Battle of Jemappes.

[4] Nowadays the school, set in the cloister of the former Basilica of St Denis, has about 500 pupils of lycée and the classes of hypokhâgne, khâgne and BTS.

[4] The Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur are public, non-confessional (there is a Catholic and Protestant chaplaincy for the boarders who need to practise their religion), girls-only schools.

[6] All students of the Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur are boarders; the boarding school is now closed during the weekends.

In superior classes, the students have the choice of being boarders and being allowed to go out alone, or being in internat externé, which means they have lunch and dinner in the school, but live outside it.

(Education given in the Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur aims to make the students feel love of their country and of freedom, as well as the meaning of their civic and familial duties, and to prepare them, by instructing them and forming their character, to ensure a proper and independent living.

[8] Each collège grade has a "choir" option, where students are given extra lessons in choral singing and learn to play different music instruments.

[10] These results made the Maison d'Éducation de la Légion d'Honneur the top-school in France in 2015, according to Le Figaro.

Each class is followed throughout the schoolyear by a "chargée d'éducation" ("lady in charge of education" : though the job is opened to men, actually only women do it).

The schoolyear at the Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur contains several ceremonies : apart from the "concert présidentiel" cited above, the "lecture du rapport" is held before each school holiday, and is an announcement of all students' results.

Then the students and their families were invited by the Grand Chancellor to a dinner with the Cadets of the United States Military Academy (who were also at the parade), and then watched the fireworks on the Champ de Mars.