Lycée Buffon
Encyclopedia
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier...
is a secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in the XVe arrondissement of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, bordered by boulevard Pasteur, the rue de Vaugirard
Rue de Vaugirard
Rue de Vaugirard is the longest road in Paris, at 4.3 km. It spans the 6th and 15th arrondissements.-Location:Rue de Vaugirard is mostly a one-way street from the Latin Quarter towards the edge of Paris . Traffic flows in both directions between Rue de Rennes and the Place de l'Odéon...
and the rue de Staël. Its nearest métro station is Pasteur
Pasteur (Paris Metro)
Pasteur is a station on lines 6 and 12 of the Paris Métro in the 15th arrondissement. The platforms on both lines are underground, although line 6 becomes elevated just to the northwest of the station. Nearby are the Pasteur Institute and the Lycée Buffon .-History:The station opened on 24 April...
. Jean-Claude Durand is its current proviseur.
It is a "cité scolaire" made up of a collège
Secondary education in France
In France, secondary education is in two stages:* collèges cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14...
, a lycée and scientific classes préparatoires
Classe Préparatoire aux Grandes Écoles
The classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles , commonly called classes prépas or prépas, are part of the French post-secondary education system. They consist in two very selective years , acting as a prep course with the main goal of training undergraduate students for enrolment in one of the...
. It has 2 000 students, served by 170 professors, 4 "conseillers principaux d'éducation" and 50 other teaching personnel. It also houses an adult education centre for those taking the BTS and the Licence des métiers de l'immobilier, and a UPI, the only one in Paris for the visually impaired. Les jeunes malvoyants, peuvent intégrer ensuite l'enseignement classique.
The religious scholar Odon Vallet studied here, and its teachers have included the philosopher and journalist Maurice Clavel
Maurice Clavel
Maurice Clavel is a French writer, journalist and philosopher born on November 10, 1920 in Frontignan and who died on April 23, 1979 in Asquins .-Youth:...
, the theatre critic and historian Gilles Sandié, and the writer and cineaste Jean Pelgri. The school's sundial can be seen on an exterior wall on rue de Vaugirard.
History
- 1885 : The architect Joseph Auguste Émile VaudremerJoseph Auguste Émile VaudremerJoseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer was a French architect. He won the prix de Rome and designed several public buildings in France, particularly in Paris.-Life:...
conceived the idea and design for a "lycée de la rive gaucheRive GaucheLa Rive Gauche is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two: looking downstream, the southern bank is to the left, and the northern bank is to the right....
", to be built on the site of the old cimetière de Vaugirard. - 1888 : The establishment took the name "lycée Buffon", after the naturalist the Comte de BuffonGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier...
, on the centenary of his death. - 1889 : First entrants, under director M. Adam.
- 1901 : Opening of the first classe préparatoire.
- 1914-1918 : Served as a military hospital.
- 1940-1945 : A French ResistanceFrench ResistanceThe French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
centre. - 8 February 1943 : FiveFive Martyrs of the lycée BuffonThe Five Martyrs of the Lycée Buffon were five students from the Lycée Buffon shot by the Germans in Paris at the Stand de tir de Balard on 8 February 1943 for their activities with the French Resistance. Also, their families were taken hostage...
of its students - Jean Arthus, Jacques Baudry, Pierre Benoît, Pierre Grelot and Lucien Legros - were shot by a German firing squad at the stand de tir de BalardBalard shooting rangeDuring the Second World War, the Balard shooting range was the site of Nazi torture and executions, now disappeared with the construction of the Boulevard périphérique de Paris.-Location:...
in Paris. They had been arrested and condemned to death for Resistance activities in 1942. A commemorative plaque to the event is to be seen in the lycée's entrance hall on and it is also commemorated by the naming of the place des Cinq-Martyrs-du-Lycée-Buffon, at the end of boulevard Pasteur. - 15 June 1944 : Raymond BurgardRaymond BurgardRaymond Burgard was a French Resistance worker.-Life:Alsacian in origin, he aggregated in grammar in 1928. In September 1937, he was made literature professor at lycée Buffon in Paris...
, a professor at the school, beheaded at CologneCologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
by the Nazis - 1970 : Introduction of co-ed, achieved in September 1978.
- 1988 : Sports classes set up.
- 1995 : Restoration works begun.
- 1997 : New building for specialist teaching opened.
- 1998 : New school canteen and gymnasium opened.