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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 Cour carrée of the Louvre, make your way to the Pont des Arts and admire the view from the majestic dome of the Académie française, one of the five academies that make up the Institut de France. Built in 1688 to the plans of royal architect Louis le Vau, it was designed in response to the wish of the all-powerful Cardinal Mazarin to reunite the Collège des Quatre Nations, the forerunner of today's grandes écoles. In 1805, Napoleon I established the Institut de France here, nicknamed the "parliament of scholars". In addition to the Académie française (founded in 1635), it includes 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 is the Académie française. Its founder, Cardinal de Richelieu, was keen to give a definitive ruling on French grammar, so that the State and its subjects could recognize each other in a single 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 Institut dome is open to visitors on Saturdays, while the libraries (Mazarine and de l'Institut) are open on weekdays, with accreditation for the latter. The whole complex, opposite the Louvre, is well worth a visit.
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