Setting of The Last Chance Tour Part 1
Maison d'éducation de Saint-Denis
When you think of boarding schools, one name stands out above the rest: Hogwarts.
What if I told you there is a real boarding school in a magical place outside of Paris with a spell-binding, real-world story? What if I told you the infamous little general, the one with his hand in his jacket, created this school just for girls over 200 years ago?
This enchanting, mysterious hall of academic excellence is none other than the St. Denis branch of the Maison d’éducation de la Légion d’honneur. (Pictured above, the school is the blocky A-shaped building that snuggles up next to the 12th-century Basilica Cathedral of Saint Denis.)
How did this school inspire my new book, Louisa Sophia and The Last Chance Tour?
As soon as I spawned the idea of turning Louisa Sophia, the 1/2 Greek illegitimate child of a powerful British noble, into a cat burglar, I knew I needed her trained in not just the stealthy arts but also required her to be highly educated. Historical note: The word cat burglar did not exist in the 1800s. In my books, Louisa is a thief or burglar.
Whatever the correct name of her profession, I wanted Louisa to have her feet firmly planted on both sides of the propriety line. In pursuing how to educate Louisa, I searched for girls boarding schools that existed in the 1870s. I found a few in England. Any of those schools would have been too close for her father, Evelyn Baring, the 1st Earl of Cromer’s liking. He would not want his illegitimate child growing up so close to his family and possibly enemies.
I moved on to look for girl’s schools on the European mainland during that decade. I became discouraged until I discovered the schools associated with the Légion d’honneur.
Not only did the schools created by Napoleon exist in the 1870s, but to my astonishment, they were sixty years old at the time Louisa would have attended. Today, these schools still operate with the exact hereditary requirements needed to attend as laid out when founded.
The daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters of Légion d’honneur winners have first choice to attend. If not enough girls apply each year from that group, there are other ways to qualify, but all of them require a family member to have won an award of some type.
Given their status as France’s oldest publicly funded girls’ schools, the Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d’honneur can be said to be the wellspring of girls’ education in the country, if not the continent.
What has changed with the Légion d’honneur schools?
Only two of the original three schools are still in operation.
Teaching nuns no longer run the schools
The rulebook of today is less draconian than the one of the past.
Instead of being divided by social caste, the remaining schools host middle-grade students at Les Loges and high school students at St. Denis.
Another similarity between today and the school of 1874, when the book takes place, is that the level of education offered is unmatched for young women in Europe. For example, in 2015, the school was named the top school in France based on its academic accomplishments.
While researching the schools, I kept finding references to a book written by a French professor at the University of Paris, Descartes. I reached out to her, and she graciously provided me with a treasure trove of information. In the early 1990s, she wrote a thesis that researched early women’s education, including the schools. Many of her insights come from a diary a former Écouen student wrote during the latter half of the 1870’s.
Several students and staff mentioned in the diary, including the diary’s author, Eugénie Savant, are included as characters in my book. I want to honor the young women and the staff whose story would never have come to light without Eugénie’s persistence. Like so much during the time Eugénie attended, the rulebook forbade keeping a diary.
Today, I am gaining more insight into the school by having conversations with several of the current teachers of St. Denis. Their enthusiasm for the school and belief in their students’ exceptional abilities is encouraging. I plan to visit the school this December to experience the unique atmosphere and learn more about its incredible legacy. Who knows, maybe the visit will inspire even more stories of what might have been.
As you read the first chapters of The Last Chance Tour set at St. Denis, I hope you will come to appreciate the school’s unique nature and rich history as much as I do.
In my next post, I will share Chapter 1 of Louisa Sophia and The Last Chance Tour.