Lycee Janson de Sailly

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.

Monsieur Janson de Sailly was a wealthy Parisian lawyer, who found out that his wife 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.

The lycée was built in the 1880s. Victor Hugo who lived nearby made a speech for the inauguration. A decade later it was opened to girls as well. The lycée Janson de Sailly was the first Republican lycée of France (the others were 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. 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.

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.

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