Grasse's Institut Fénelon

When I walk around the fringes of Grasse’s old town, I often see the red symbol of the town’s Institut Fénelon. It has only four main sites, but Grasse being Grasse, with its myriad of streets, traverses and entrances, the red ‘F’ seems almost ubiquitous.

Fénelon logo at the main entrance on avenue Pierre Sémard

Noticing the symbol so often made me want to know more about it.

Technically, Fénelon is a group of Catholic private schools. It is state-funded but independently managed under France’s hybrid system, in which about 18% of all pupils attend private schools of this kind. It is named after François Fénelon, a seventeenth century priest, educationalist and writer who notably supported the education of women,

The school was only founded in 1919, but it’s been entangled in the history of Grasse since at least the mid-nineteenth century. You can see its sites on the map below.

Map of Fénelon sites (source: Fénelon website)

The Lycée

As well as being the most prominent of Fénelon’s sites, the Lycée on av Y-E Baudoin (part of the Route Napoleon) was the Institut’s first in 1919. It’s actually much older, being built in 1864 as the St Louis primary school, under a Christian teaching order known as the Lasallians which had several hundred schools around France. When the Institut Fénelon was created in 1919, with less than 20 pupils, it shared its site with the older establishment, but in 1933 the St Louis was merged into the Fénelon. The school was successful and the site was gradually extended between 1930 and 1975 with new buildings and the acquisition of some large villas nearby.

(Top) Fenelon Lycée (image from Fenelon website). (Bottom) Various buildings were added to the site - this one is the Villa Claire (acquired in 1940 and obviously later modernised) which appears from the outside to be unconnected to the main building slightly further up the hill.

Since 1992, it has been dedicated as Fénelon’s Lycée site. It has about 600 pupils.

The Collège

The Tombarel company, like so many Grasse perfumeries, built a new facility around the turn of the nineteenth century. In their case it was on agricultural land on the slopes to the east of the old town. Contemporary images show a large site which was significantly developed between 1898 and 1980.

Tombarel perfumery, av Pierre Sémard, in a stylised drawing from about 1910. Grasse perfumiers all seem to have been proud of their black smoking chimneys!

After 1975, Tombarel went through various changes of control and eventually the factory was closed down in 1988.

Institut Fenelon saw the opportunity offered by a site close to the old town and not far from its original location in av Y-E Baudoin. They moved their Collège classes into the old buildings of the perfumery in 1992. Then, in 2016-2018 most of the industrial structures were swept away and replaced with a new Collège campus. Today the Collège has approximately 600 pupils.

This photo of the main building of the Collège, with its wide roads and ample parking, gives an idea of the magnitude of the old Tombarel site - which was not even Grasse's largest perfumery.

The Primary School

Fenelon’s primary school has even older roots. It combines two historic children’s schools on the ex-Tombarel site.

Entrance to Jeanne d'Arc school on rue Tracastel

Jeanne d’Arc was originally in rue Tracastel and can be dated to the seventeenth century under an order of nuns known as St Thomas de Villeneuve. It was re-established in the 1820s following closure during the Revolution. You can see more about it in my post here.

Sainte Marthe school was also a religious foundation, by Dominican nuns in 1831. It was located in the Convent of the Visitation, which is now Grasse's Conservatoire de Musique as well as the site of Fénelon's ISM.

During World War II, both schools successfully hid young Jewish girls as part of the Reseau Marcel (see here, for example). The old Jeanne d'Arc entrance has a plaque of appreciation, but I have not been able to find one for Ste Marthe.

The two schools were merged and relocated to new buildings on Fénelon’s Collège campus in 2018. There are about 500 pupils.

Higher Education (Institut Supérieur du Management or ISM Fénelon)

In 1995, Fénelon started to offer post-baccalaureate courses leading to BTS (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur) qualifications. It now also provides Batchelor and Masters level courses, some in association with Coventry University in the UK through France’s Catholic higher education network, which is known as 'ReneSup' (Réseau National de l’Enseignement Supérieur Privé).

The ISM is housed in the historic Convent of the Visitation, which sits high on the edge of the old town.

Convent de la Visitation

Educational Politics in France

The development of Institut Fénelon can be explained in the context of how French education has changed in the last two centuries. In France, just as it was in England, the role of the Church has been a significant factor.

Church primary school fees were expensive. This bill (reproduced from Émile Litschgy's 'On Lui Disant', TAC, 1999) shows a fee of FF112 for one term at another Grasse school in 1868 - around €1,500 today.

Fénelon’s two originating primary schools, Jeanne d’Arc and Sainte Marthe, were respectively re-founded and founded in an era when religious schools, staffed by teaching orders, were a principal source of education. They were supported financially by Catholic benefactors and the Church as well as from parents’ fees. During the same period, municipal primary schools were being established across France under what was known as the Guizot Law, passed in 1833.

By 1864, when the St Louis school was started, Church and state schools co-existed side by side.

All that changed under the government of the Third Republic, which, following the defeat by Germany of Napoleon III’s Third Empire in 1870, was distinctly anti-clerical. The ‘Jules Ferry’ laws of 1881 made primary education free and compulsory but specifically secular. Religious instruction was excluded from public schools. Later, the clergy were forbidden even to teach in public schools and the famous 'Laïcité' law of 1905 on the separation of church and state ended all public funding to religious institutions, including schools.

Catholic schools in Grasse like Jeanne d’Arc, Sainte Marthe, St Louis and others survived on parent fees, community support and private funding, so when Fénelon was established in 1919, it was privately financed. Pupil numbers in the Catholic schools were low, although strict separation slipped somewhat after the Great War through the payment of indirect state and local government subsidies (and, under the Vichy regime, direct government support). Fénelon had less than 200 pupils by 1950 (there are no official statistics).

The Debré law

The rise of Fénelon from a tiny collège on bd Baudouin to today’s 2,200 across the whole educational spectrum originates with legislation in 1959 known as the Debré law, after the Prime Minister of the day.

Michel Debré in the 1950s, looking rather smug about his achievements.

It allowed Catholic schools to operate with full state funding provided that they contracted to deliver the national curriculum. Fénelon signed its contract in 1961 and by 1985 it had expanded to over 1,000 pupils.

Effectively it became and remains the hub for almost all church-linked education in Grasse. The two primary schools of Jeanne d’Arc and Sainte Marthe, initially still on their historic sites, were incorporated into Fénelon in 1981, the new College site on av Sémard opened in 1993 and the higher education facility was initiated in 1995.

Grasse Campus

High above the old town, behind the Casino, there is a prominent sign, ‘Grasse Campus’, on another historic building which was once Grasse’s law courts. On either side, buildings which were previously the Gendarmerie and the town gaol are currently being refurbished as student accommodation. The strategic aim of the Grasse Campus is to bring additional life to the town by expanding the local student population.

(Left) Grasse Campus building on rue de l'Ancien Palais de Justice (right) 'Grasse Campus' signs have been added to the gates into Fénelon's ISM .

ISM Fénelon, with around 500 students out of the Campus’ current total of about 800, is a key component of it.

When I was working, I regularly used to visit on business the city of Montpellier, which has a student population of well over 50,000. It was easy to see how its higher education institutions have helped to make it a vibrant city at all times of the year. I hope that the Communauté d’Agglomération du Pays de Grasse’s Campus strategy can help Grasse to emulate it.