Military School

The Ecole militaire at the south-eastern end of the Champ-de-Mars in the 7th arrondissement is the royal French military academy founded in 1751. It was endowed by Louis XV on the initiative of Madame de Pompadour to give poor sons of the nobility an officer's education. The plans were drawn by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, court architect of the Place de la Concorde, and finished by his successor Brongniart. Its most famous graduate is Napoleon Bonaparte, who trained there in 1784 to 1785 and whose report concluded that he would go far if circumstances favoured him. The school is still an active higher military academy and not open to the public. Its neoclassical main facade is best seen from the Champ-de-Mars and the Place Joffre.