Moving to Paris with a teenager, whether you are a French family coming home or settling in France for the first time, almost always starts with the same question: which is the best high school? The question is fair, but it hides two more decisive ones. Which lycée can my child actually get into, given the calendar and their real level? And which one leads where they want to go after the baccalaureate?
In Paris, both questions are largely settled before you arrive. Applications to the most sought-after schools close in the spring, and state schools depend on an address that must be in your own name. This article covers the official figures, how to get into each type of school, and what changes when a teenager arrives in the last two years.
Best high schools in Paris: what the official figures say
Every year the French ministry of education publishes each lycée's baccalaureate results: pass rate, rate of honours (mentions), the share of students who go from the first year to the bac in the same school, and above all the added value, the gap between the results obtained and those expected given the students the school takes in. The ministry stresses that these indicators are not meant to be a ranking. They are still the only public, comparable measure.
| State lycée | Honours | Added value | Highest honours (with distinction) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louis-le-Grand (5th) | 97% | +4 | 230 (83) |
| Lavoisier (5th) | 92% | +3 | 80 (8) |
| Henri-IV (5th) | 91% | 0 | 153 (19) |
| Charlemagne (4th) | 91% | +3 | 86 (13) |
| Fénelon (6th) | 91% | +4 | 57 (10) |
| Jean-Baptiste-Say (16th) | 90% | +3 | 81 (9) |
| Condorcet (9th) | 87% | +5 | 46 (5) |
| Claude-Monet (13th) | 85% | +6 | 59 (1) |
| Private lycée under contract | Honours | Added value | Highest honours (with distinction) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blomet (15th) | 100% | +4 | 73 (5) |
| Stanislas (6th) | 99% | +3 | 166 (24) |
| Jeannine Manuel (15th) | 99% | not calculated | 98 (22) |
| Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, known as Franklin (16th) | 99% | +3 | 93 (12) |
| La Tour (16th) | 99% | +4 | 71 (7) |
| Notre-Dame de Sion (6th) | 99% | +4 | 65 (2) |
| Fénelon Sainte-Marie (8th) | 98% | +4 | 92 (9) |
| École internationale bilingue (17th) | 98% | +5 | 57 (14) |
Two readings stand out. Louis-le-Grand is in a league of its own: 83 highest honours with distinction, by far the highest figure in Paris. Beyond that, the honours rates of the big names sit within a few points of each other, and added value tells a different story: Henri-IV is at 0, while lesser-known schools do much better, such as Charles-de-Foucauld (18th, +17, the highest in Paris) or Claude-Monet, a state lycée in the 13th (+6). A school that takes the best students in Paris gets good results almost by default. One that moves ordinary students forward deserves a look too.
Source: 2025 lycée results indicators, published by the ministry in April 2026 (2025 baccalaureate). General and technological lycées in Paris, state and private under contract. Figures change every year; each school's page is available on the ministry's website.
How to get into a lycée in Paris: four doors
Each type of school has its own door, and none of them works like a direct application.
- Ordinary state lycées go through Affelnet, an online choice system in May. The score adds a catchment bonus (based on the collège assigned to your address, not the one your child attends), year 9 (troisième) marks and social bonuses. A family moving in must provide proof of address before 1 June; staying with a third party is not accepted. After that date, the request goes to a committee at the end of August, for the places left.
- Henri-IV and Louis-le-Grand have two routes. A pupil in year 9 at a Paris collège lists them in Affelnet as first choices. Everyone else, including families arriving from abroad, submits a file on a dedicated platform that opens in January and closes in early April for seconde, late April for première and terminale. The stated criteria: academic excellence, commitment and motivation.
- Private schools under contract choose their students. You contact the school directly, often very early, then confirm the place in Affelnet: the head remains free to accept or not.
- International sections recruit on a file, a written test and an oral in the section's language, with an even earlier calendar: applications close in mid-March.
International sections and the BFI: the bilingual state lycée
For a teenager who has lived in another language, this is often the best option and the least known. Students follow the French curriculum and sit the French international baccalaureate (BFI), which replaced the former OIB: a full French bac, about 40% of whose mark comes from section-specific subjects. Tuition is free, apart from the contribution asked by the section's association.
- British section: Camille-Sée (15th), Honoré-de-Balzac (17th), Maurice-Ravel (20th).
- Other languages: Balzac for German, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese; Claude-Monet, Janson-de-Sailly and Jacques-Decour for Chinese; Jean-de-La-Fontaine for Japanese; Montaigne for Polish and Portuguese.
- In private schools under contract: a BFI track at Jeannine Manuel (American), École active bilingue Étoile (British) and Collège Sévigné (American).
- Outside Paris: the Lycée international de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and its fourteen sections, Sèvres, Courbevoie, Saint-Cloud, the Lycée international de l'Est parisien in Noisy-le-Grand, the Franco-German lycée in Buc.
Recruitment is open to students who do not live in Paris yet. Entry into première follows the same rules as seconde; in terminale, only students already in this track can apply, subject to places.
IB schools in Paris: the international diploma, at another price
The IB Diploma is only taught in private schools: no state lycée in Paris offers it. It is the natural route for a teenager schooled in English who will study abroad. It is a less direct route to French classes préparatoires and Parcoursup, as I explain in IB or French baccalaureate.
Annual IB Diploma fees for 2026-2027, from the schools' websites.
- International School of Paris (16th): €39,000, plus a €10,000 entry fee and a €1,200 application fee.
- American School of Paris (Saint-Cloud): €41,400, plus €12,200 in the first year and €2,000 a year for security.
- École Jeannine Manuel (15th), IB track: €32,560, against €10,275 for its French lycée under contract.
- ICS Paris (15th): €32,475 in Grades 11-12, plus €7,500 in entry fees in total.
- Ermitage (Maisons-Laffitte): €28,950 for day students.
Be wary of online directories: their fees are often from a previous year.
Arriving in première or terminale: what the bac requires
This is what surprises families most. Years completed abroad do not automatically give the right to the next class: a student from a foreign school not recognised by France sits tests that decide their class, and the rules place them by level, with at most two years' gap from the reference age.
The bac, then, is prepared over two years. Continuous assessment in première and terminale counts for 40% of the mark, final exams for 60%. The early exams taken at the end of première, French and now maths, do not disappear for a student who arrives directly in terminale: they take them in the same year as the other exams. They are, however, exempt from the specialty subject dropped at the end of première. Finally, all première marks count in Parcoursup. Arriving in terminale is possible, but it is the heaviest year in which to do it.
Four questions to choose the lycée
- Where is your child going after the bac? French prépas and grandes écoles: a leading French lycée or an international section. British or American universities: the BFI or the IB. Both: the BFI keeps the most doors open.
- What is their real level in written French and in maths? Speaking French at home is not writing a French essay, and maths curricula move at different speeds from one country to another.
- Where is the family settling? The address sets the catchment for state schools. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Sèvres or Noisy-le-Grand change the map of options.
- What budget? Free in the state sector, around €10,000 in a leading bilingual private school under contract, €30,000 to €40,000 in an IB school.
Prepare the entry instead of enduring it
Families who manage this transition well start about a year before the target September: they have the teenager's level measured, choose two or three realistic schools, and keep to each one's calendar, from the January platform to the May oral. That is the work I do with them, with maths lessons when a gap must be closed before the tests. For the general rules of French schools when you arrive, see Schools in Paris for expat families; to compare school figures across France, Best high schools in France.