Lycée Janson-de-Sailly is a lycée located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. The lycéens of Janson are called les jansoniens and they usually refer to their high school as Janson, or JdS. It is the biggest academic institution in the region: 3,200 boys and girls from 11 to 20 attend classes ranging from junior high school to Classes Préparatoires.
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History
Alexandre-Emmanuel-François Janson de Sailly (1782-1829) was a wealthy Parisian lawyer, who found out that his wife Marie-Jeanne Joséphine Berryer had a lover. Therefore, he decided to disinherit her and to bequeath all of his fortune to the State, under the condition that it be used to establish a modern high school that would offer an excellent education and in which no women would be allowed. After his death, his widow attempted to quash his will until her death in 1876, without any success.
The lycée was built in the 1880s: the first stone being put on October 16, 1881 by Jules Ferry, who spoke about the "lycée of the new times." Victor Hugo who lived nearby made a speech for the inauguration, on October 13, 1884.
The lycée Janson-de-Sailly was the first Republican lycée of France (the others started as royal or imperial establishments); it aimed at training the future French scientific, literary, military, industrial, diplomatic and political male élites of the young Third Republic.
It gained a national reputation, and attracted students from around the country. It also became one of the lycées of Parisian high society. The motto of the lycée was Pour la Patrie, par le livre et par l'épée (For the Homeland, by the book and by the sword). Many alumni joined the military, and participated in the conquest of the French Colonial Empire, especially in Africa.
In 1944, a few hundred Jansonians managed to leave the lycée and joined the French Free Forces (the 1st Army of Jean de Lattre de Tassigny): they founded le 2ème Bataillon de Choc, also known as Bataillon Janson-de-Sailly and the bataillons des bacheliers. They faced the German divisions in Alsace (especially in the battles of Masevaux and Colmar) during the counter-attack of Ardennes, and entered Germany with General Patton's forces in 1945.
The first female pupils would be admitted in 1959.
Commemorative plaques near the entrances of several classrooms and halls in the school buildings honor the memories of its alumni - including the war hero Roland Garros.
Teaching
Nowadays, the 3,200 students are equally divided into the three traditional formations of the French Education System : collège (30 classes with collégiens from 11 to 14), lycée (30 classes with lycéens from 14 to 18) and Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes écoles or prépas (30 classes with students from 18 to 20).
In France, students must study two foreign or regional languages. The first choice at Janson is English or German. The second choice foreign language is: English, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese or Russian. In classes préparatoires, there is even more choice with German, English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Russian as first language and all the aforementioned languages plus Japanese and Chinese as a second language. A student in Classes préparatoires can also take another second language not amongst those above. But those languages are available only through a partnership (the "Langues Inter-établissement") with other lycées with a wilder range of languages. The student would then study at Janson but go to another lycée to attend its foreign language class. For instance, the lycée Montaigne provides Portuguese and Polish and the lycée Buffon offers Hebrew and Swedish.
The Lycée offers an AbiBac section, with German history classes taught by a native speaker. The students taking part in the section will take the Abitur and the Baccalauréat exams at the end of 12th grade.
Ranking
Due to its geographical location, and to the number of its important alumni, Janson de Sailly has a high reputation. Its scholastic ranking puts it at or above the median for area schools. According to the sociologists Michel Pinçon and Monique Pinçon-Charlot the school is predominantly attended by children from the upper class or from the aristocracy because of its location (the wealthy 16th arrondissement of Paris).
Notable alumni
Politics and government
Jacques Attali (born 1943), political adviser
Robert Badinter (born 1928), French Minister of Justice
Jean-Louis Bianco (born 1943), French Minister of Transport
Édouard Bonnefous (1907-2007), French Minister of Commerce
Jean-Louis Borloo (born 1951), French Minister of Ecology
Élisabeth Borne (born 1961), Prime Minister of France
Pierre Brossolette (1903-1944), member of the French Resistance
Olivier Dassault (born 1951), French MP
Bernard Debré (born 1944), French Minister of Development
Laurent Fabius (born 1946), Prime Minister of France
Edgar Faure (1908-1988), Prime Minister of France
Olivier Giscard d'Estaing (born 1927), French MP
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (born 1926), President of France
Bruno Gollnisch (born 1950), MEP
Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark (1908-1980)
Jean-Marcel Jeanneney (1910-2010), French Minister of Justice
Lionel Jospin (born 1937), Prime Minister of France
Military
François d'Astier de la Vigerie (1886–1956), French General
Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves (1901-1941), member of the French Resistance
Pierre Marie Gallois (1911-2010), French General
Roland Garros (1888-1918), military aviator
Jacques Lanxade (born 1934), French admiral
Science
Élie Cartan (1869-1951), mathematician
Jean Favard (1902-1965), mathematician
Jean Baptiste Perrin (1870-1942), physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate
Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, (1936-2024), historian and anthropologist
Laurent Schwartz (1915-2002), mathematician, Fields Medalist
Jean-Claude Sikorav (born 1957), mathematician
Hervé This (born 1955), chemist
Humanities
Philippe Ariès (1914-1984), historian
Pierre Assouline (born 1953), essayist
Claude Aveline (1901-1992), essayist
Jacques Barzun (1907-2012), historian
Alain Bernheim (1931–2022), essayist
Pierre Bertaux (1907-1986), scholar
Laurent-Emmanuel Calvet (born 1969), economist
Jean Daujat (1906-1998), philosopher
Régis Debray (born 1940), philosopher
Alain Decaux (1925-2016), historian
Charles Du Bos (1882-1939), essayist
Émile Faguet (1947-1916), essayist
François Furet (1927-1997), historian
Bertrand Gille (1920-1980), historian
Paul Guth (1910-1997), essayist
Henri Lepage (born 1941), economist
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009), anthropologist
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), philosopher
Matthieu Ricard (born 1946), Buddhist monk
George Steiner (born 1929), essayist
Benjamin Stora (born 1950), historian
Arts
Richard Anthony (1920-2006), singer
Gilbert Amy (born 1936), composer and conductor
Claude Autant-Lara (1901-2000), film director
Christian Bérard (1902-1949), designer
Richard Berry (born 1950), actor
Sinclair (born 1970), singer
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (born 1967), singer and model
Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980), writer
Emmanuel Carrère (born 1957), writer
Roger Chastel (1897-1981), painter
René Crevel (1900-1935), writer
Jean-Loup Dabadie (born 1938), writer
Pierre Daninos (1913-2005), writer
Michel Déon (1919-2016), writer
Jean Dutourd (1920-2011), writer
Henri Franck (1888-1912), writer
Franc-Nohain (1872-1934), writer
Jean Gabin (1904-1976), actor
José Giovanni (1923-2004), film director
Julien Green (1900-1998), writer
Sacha Guitry (1885-1957), film director
Business
Bernard Attali (born 1943), CEO of Air France
François-Marie Banier (born 1947), Liliane Bettencourt's adviser
Vincent Bolloré (born 1952), billionaire, CEO of Bolloré
Cyril Bourlon de Rouvre (born 1945), businessman
Martin Bouygues (born 1952), billionaire, CEO of Bouygues
Serge Dassault (born 1925), billionaire, CEO of Dassault Group
Arnaud Lagardère (born 1961), CEO of Lagardère Group
Robert Louis-Dreyfus (1946-2009), owner of the Olympique de Marseille
Raoul Nordling (1881-1962), businessman
Ernest-Antoine Seillière (born 1930), head of the MEDEF
J. R. D. Tata (1904–1993), chairman of Tata Group
Léon Zitrone (1914-1995), TV host
JRD Tata, French-born Indian industrialist, founder, aviator and philanthropist
Sports
Robert Abdesselam (1920-2006), tennis player
William Grover-Williams (1903-1945), racing driver
Sister schools
Hangzhou Foreign Language School
Yeouido Girls High School