Collège Mignet, Historical school building in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Collège Mignet occupies a light grey ashlar building at 41 rue Cardinale, in the Mazarin quarter. Its three-storey facade has a grooved ground floor, a wooden double door with a carved figure above it, and three windows set in rectangular recesses. A round clock framed in carved stone sits between the top windows, below a plaque inscribed "LYCEE MIGNET" and a French tricolour on a vertical flagpole.

The building was founded in 1603 under King Henry IV and initially served as a religious institution. The French Revolution in 1790 led to the departure of religious orders and its transformation into a school.

The school is named after François-Auguste Mignet, the Aix-born historian and friend of Adolphe Thiers. Its pupils included Paul Cézanne, Émile Zola and the composer Darius Milhaud, and Marcel Pagnol taught English there as a répétiteur. The name LYCEE MIGNET is carved on a plaque below the clock on the Rue Cardinale facade.

The Rue Cardinale facade is the one to look at: a light grey ashlar front with a carved figure over the wooden double door, a round clock between the upper windows and a plaque reading "LYCEE MIGNET". The building is a working school, so the interior, cloister and grand staircase are not open to casual visitors; the street view is what you get.

The 1991 heritage listing protects the former entrance of the Benedictine convent, seen in the south and east facades, and the grand ceremonial staircase. The Ursuline chapel also survives, while the Benedictine chapel was split into two levels, one now a dance hall. The building's limestone comes from the region.