Saint-Cyr-l’École (meaning “Saint-Cyr-the-School”) is a town just west of Versailles. In fact it borders directly on the southwest corner of the Versailles Palace Gardens. The town is called Saint-Cyr-l’École to avoid confusion with other French towns that were also named after the same saint, such as: Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d’Or Saint-Cyr-en-Val Saint-Cyr-sur-Morin Read More …
One of the features of Madame de Maintenon’s school in its early years was that the girls were allowed to perform plays, to improve their public speaking abilities and expose them to great literature. This was common practice in boys’ schools at the time, but was unheard of in girls’ Read More …
Starting in 1683, when she was 48 years old, Madame de Maintenon lived in an unusual and contradictory situation. She was the lawfully wedded wife of the ruling French monarch, King Louis XIV, but she was not the queen. They had been married by the Archbishop of Paris (and the Read More …
After the death of Madame de Maintenon, her school continued to operate for 74 more years before finally being closed during the French Revolution in March 1793. The school building was then used as a military hospital for several years. In 1808, Napoléon chose this building as the site of Read More …