26/04/2026
The Crown Jewel & The Noble Guard: A De La Salle Connection 🇫🇷
I am currently hosting a French student, Cassandre, who shares a truly exceptional connection with my own past. He attends a "De La Salle" school near Nantes—the prestigious Saint-Joseph du Loquidy () https://www.facebook.com/loquidynantes/
The "Crown Jewel" of Tradition
This is part of the same elite network where I spent my formative years at St Jean-Baptiste de la Salle in Rouen https://lasallefrance.fr/jean-baptiste-de-la-salle/ (). My old school was the Crown Jewel of the Lasallian tradition. It was an academic powerhouse, ranked No. 1 in France for Mathematics, but the prestige came with a level of discipline that is hard to imagine today.
Instructed by the Elite
We were taught by Jesuit-trained priests who carried the weight of history in their very names. These were men of noble lineage, with names like Monsieur Pierre-Henri de la Rivière. Their authority was absolute, and their standards were uncompromising.
A World of Absolute Rules
To give you an idea of the environment, my subsequent military service felt like a Mediterranean holiday compared to boarding life:
The Dormitories: 60 students in one room with "Pion" guards watching from boxes in the four corners. If someone whispered at 2:00 AM, the lights stayed on for an hour for everyone until the culprit was found.
The Rule of Silence: Talking on the stairs earned you 200 lines; failure to complete them meant starting the count all over again.
A Male Bastion: Women were strictly forbidden from entering the school grounds.
Public Accountability: Every semester, results were read out loud in the chapel in front of all the fathers and students. There was no escape and no mercy—parents who complained saw their children immediately expelled.
A Shared Heritage
In those days, it was a world of "brutal smacks" and mandatory church, where character was forged in fire. Comparing notes with a student from the same school group today is a fascinating bridge across time.
We may come from different generations, but we share the same "De La Salle" DNA. Welcome to the UK, Cassandre! 🇬🇧
