Lycée Paul-Langevin, Historic high school in France

The Lycée Paul-Langevin occupies a 1.3-hectare former farmland site on the northern plateau of Suresnes, at 4 rue Maurice-Payret-Dortail. Architect Maurice Payret-Dortail designed it as a campus of separate two-storey buildings set to the slope, each with its own courtyard and entrance, grouped around shared facilities such as the swimming pool. Red brick and concrete façades face a paved cour d'honneur lined with lawns and sculptures.

In 1920 the architect Maurice Payret-Dortail entered the competition for a new school group on 1.3 hectares of former farmland on Suresnes' northern plateau; his project was chosen in 1924 and the buildings opened on 1 September 1927. First named after its architect, then after the Czechoslovak politician Edvard Beneš, it took the name of the physicist Paul Langevin in 1948. It housed a nursery, boys' and girls' primary schools, an upper primary school and a commercial and industrial school.

The school was first named after its architect Maurice Payret-Dortail, then after the Czechoslovak politician Edvard Beneš, and since 1948 it has borne the name of the physicist Paul Langevin (1872-1946). Educational and civic mottoes are carved on the walls, such as "Ce groupe scolaire, où l'on enseigne l'amour de la France, de l'Humanité et de la Patrie, fut bâti en 1927". The entrances of the schools, with their round arches and small engaged columns, recall church porches.

The school is a working secondary school at 4, rue Maurice-Payret-Dortail, so the buildings are not open to the public during term time. The court of honour, paved and lined with lawns and sculptures, is reached from that street and gives onto the monumental gymnasium facade. The site occupies a full 1.3-hectare block on the northern plateau, between rue Voltaire, chemin des Cherchevets and rue de la Liberté.

The brick and concrete façades carry glazed stoneware ceramics made by the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, and the courtyard holds two Centaure sculptures by Louis de Monard. Two more works stand along the rue Maurice-Payret-Dortail: Le Bûcheron by Paul Richer and the enamelled stoneware vase L'Âge d'or by Jules Dalou.