THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE
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The Institut de France, home to the Collège des Quatre Nations, forerunner of today's grandes écoles in Paris.
From the square courtyard of the Louvre, make your way to the Pont des Arts and admire the majestic dome of the Académie Française, known as the Institut de France. Built in 1688 to the plans of the royal architect Louis le Vau, it was designed in response to the wish of the all-powerful Cardinal Mazarin to bring together the Collège des Quatre Nations, the forerunner of today's grandes écoles. In 1805, Napoleon I established the Institut de France here. It was nicknamed the "parliament of scholars". It comprises the Académie française (founded in 1635), the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (1663), the Académie des sciences (1666), the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (1795), and the Académie des beaux-arts (1816). The best-known and oldest of these academies is the Académie française. Its founder, Cardinal de Richelieu, was keen to establish a definitive rule for French grammar so that the State and its subjects could recognise each other in the same language. It is made up of 40 members, elected by their peers, who wear a green habit with gold embroidery, a bicorne, and a sword during solemn sessions under the dome. In 1980, Marguerite Yourcenar became the first woman to join the exclusive circle of "immortals". Today, the Institute's dome is open to visitors on Saturdays, while the libraries (Mazarine and Bibliothèque de l'Institut) are open on weekdays, with accreditation for the latter. The whole complex, facing the Louvre, is well worth a visit.
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