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The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (sometimes nicknamed LLG) is a public high school located in Paris. Formally known as "Collège de Clermont", it is named after king Louis XIV of France when he visited the school and offered his patronage.
It offers both a high-school curriculum (a "Lycée" 800 pupils), and a college-level curriculum, known as "classes préparatoires" (900 students), preparing students for entrance to the elite Grandes Écoles. Louis-le-Grand is famous for its high success rates for École Polytechnique and École Normale Supérieure.
Louis-le-Grand, founded in 1563, is located right in the heart of the Quartier Latin in Paris. The Quartier Latin is the traditional student's area of Paris. Rich in history, architecture, culture, this area regroups the oldest and the most prestigious educational establishments in France (the Sorbonne, the Collège de France).
Louis-le-Grand, aiming at excellence, plays a leading role in the education of French elites. Former pupils who have become statesmen, diplomats, prelates, marshals of France, members of the Académie, men and women of letters are countless. "The Jesuit College of Paris", wrote Elie de Beaumont in 1862, "has for a long time been a state nursery, the most fertile in great men". Indeed Molière, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, all famous writers, could be held as examples of former students. All the same, Georges Pompidou, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Chirac, all presidents of the French Fifth Republic, have all once spent their time on the benches of Louis-le-Grand.
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