Lycée Lakanal (French pronunciation: [lise lakanal]) is a public secondary school in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France, in the Paris metropolitan area. It was named after Joseph Lakanal, a French politician, and an original member of the Institut de France. The school also offers a middle school and highly ranked "classes préparatoires" undergraduate training. Famous French scientists and writers have graduated from lycée Lakanal, such as Jean Giraudoux, Alain-Fournier and Frédéric Joliot-Curie. The school includes a science building, a large park, a track, and dormitories for the Pôle Espoir Rugby and the boarding students. Several teachers also live at the school along with boarding students. The main classrooms and the dormitories are in one building, and the school uses space heaters in every classroom except the science building's classrooms and the gymnasium.
As of 2016 the school has about 2,550 students in all levels, from junior high school to preparatory classes.
Contents
History
Jules Ferry, the Minister of Public Instruction in the 1880s, ordered the school built. Construction took place between 1882 and 1885.
Notable alumni
Charles Péguy (1873–1914), writer
Paul Hazard (1878–1944), historian
Jules Isaac (1877–1963), historian
Marc Boegner (1881–1970), pastor and writer
Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944), writer
Alain-Fournier (1886–1914), writer
Jacques Rivière (1886–1925), writer
Maurice Genevoix (1890–1980), writer
Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958), Nobel laureate in chemistry, physicist
Robert Bresson (1901–1999), filmmaker
Karl-Jean Longuet (1904–1981), sculptor
Arthur Adamov (1908–1970), writer and playwright
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud (1909–1950), politician, engineer, military officer from Venezuela
Maurice Allais (1911–2010), economist, Nobel laureate in economics
Pierre Hervé (1913–1993), deputy
Jean-Toussaint Desanti (1914–2002), philosopher, professor at the École normale supérieure and the Sorbonne
Jacques Chaban-Delmas (1915–2000), politician
Jacques Durand (1920–2009), engineer and automobile designer
Georges Condominas (1921–2011), ethnologist
Jean-Jacques Pauvert (1926–2014), editor
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1929–2023), historian, honorary professor at the Collège de France
Gérard Genette (1930–2018), literary theorist
Joël Schmidt, writer
Dimitri Kitsikis (1935–2021), Geopolitician, Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, Honorary President, The Dimitri Kitsikis Public Foundation.
James Austin (1940–), fine-art and architectural photographer
Jacques Bouveresse (1940–2021), philosopher, professor at the Collège de France
Colin François Lloyd Austin (1941–2010), scholar of ancient Greek
Guy Hocquenghem (1946–1988), writer
Julien Clerc (1947–), singer
Rony Brauman (1950–), doctor
Laurent Collet-Billon (1950–), general delegate for armament
Gérard Leclerc (1951–), journalist
Philippe Laguérie (1952–), priest
Renaud Van Ruymbeke (1952–), magistrate
Denis Lensel (1954–), journalist and writer
Sauveur Chemouni (1954–) founder of Invision Technologies, California
Gilles Leroy (1958–), writer (Prix Goncourt 2007)
Cédric Klapisch (1961–), director
Christophe Claro (1962–), writer
Laurent Vachaud (1964–), scriptwriter
Emmanuel Bourdieu (1965–), writer, philosopher and director, son of sociologist and Collège de France professor Pierre Bourdieu
Pap Ndiaye (1965–), politician, minister of National Education and Youth
Marie NDiaye (1967–), writer (Prix Goncourt 2009)
Christophe Ferré, writer
Pierre Courtade (1915–1963), journalist and writer
Muriel Barbery (1969–), writer
Yann Golanski (1971–), theoretical astrophysicist, mathematician and software pioneer
Laurent Chambon (1972–), sociologist
Guillaume Peltier (1976–), politician
Grégory Lamboley (1982–), international French rugby player
Yves Mourousi (1942–1998), news presenter and journalist
Lycée Lakanal in popular culture
Lycée Lakanal is the visual basis for the fictional Kadic Junior High School/Kadic Academy from Code Lyoko. However, it is not in the same location as Lakanal, being in Boulogne-Billancourt just north of there.
Lycee Lakanal is mentioned in John Le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in Jim Prideaux's backstory.