International sections in Paris: which state schools have them, and how to get in

The French state system runs around thirty international sections in Paris, spread across primary schools, collèges (ages 11 to 15) and lycées (ages 15 to 18). They charge no tuition, they lead to the Baccalauréat Français International (BFI), a bilingual version of the French baccalaureate, and every one of them recruits through the same online platform at the same point in the year. For families arriving from abroad, the language is rarely what goes wrong. The map is: a section offered at collège level may not continue at the lycée in the same building, some lycées with an "international" reputation have no section at all, and the order in which you rank your choices decides which school reads the file.

I don't repeat here how the British section works in detail, which is covered in the British international section, nor the Lycée International in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris, which has its own article. This one stays inside the city limits.

Ten languages, about a dozen schools

The table below combines the Paris education authority's pages on international sections at collège and lycée level, updated in January 2026, with the ministry's official list of BFI programmes.

Lycée Honoré-de-Balzac, in the 17th, hosts six languages on its own. That is why it is always the first name families hear, and why competition there is easiest to see.

Where the map has gaps

Read closely, that table has gaps, and families usually notice them late.

First, several collèges have no lycée section in the same language on the same site. A British-section pupil at Montaigne, Voltaire or Raymond-Queneau will have to change school for seconde, the first year of lycée (Year 11, or 10th grade). So will a Chinese-section pupil at Gabriel-Fauré or Jean-de-La-Fontaine. Nothing carries over automatically: the student applies again and sits the tests again. Even at Balzac, where collège and lycée share a building, the English section's parent association points out that its own final-year collège pupils sit the seconde entrance test alongside outside candidates.

Second, some Paris lycées known for languages have no international section. Victor-Duruy and Lamartine don't: what they run is a European section, where one subject is partly taught in English (economics and social sciences at Duruy, physics and chemistry at Lamartine). Paul-Valéry is not on the education authority's list either. A European section is for French pupils learning English; an international section assumes the language is already there, and it leads to a different diploma.

Third, at lycée level the Russian section has no continuation in Paris, and Camille-Sée's Italian section will only produce its first BFI graduates in 2028.

One application window, January to March

Every state section in Paris recruits through the same platform, the one for "cursus spécifiques" (selective tracks). It opens in mid-January and closes in early March, for entry the following September. Families rank up to ten choices, and those ten are shared across all selective tracks: international, oriental and binational sections, but also Henri-IV and Louis-le-Grand, the two most selective state lycées in France. A student aiming for both Balzac and Louis-le-Grand ranks them in the same list.

Two parallel steps are often missed. A family living in Paris and applying for sixième (the first year of collège, Year 7 or 6th grade) must also request a catchment exemption, ticking "parcours scolaire particulier", even if the collège is their local one. A family moving to Paris must also file a request for an ordinary school place, in case the section turns them down. For a pupil in the last year of collège, section choices also go into the national lycée allocation system in May, at the top of the list.

The timetable changed recently. Until 2024 the platform closed at the end of March and the tests were held in April or May, and many parent association pages still show those dates. Go by the education authority's page for the current year.

What the written test and the oral look like

The education authority publishes no past papers, and each section designs its own tests. The British sections still say enough to judge the level.

At Lycée Maurice-Ravel, the written test for seconde is a 50 to 80 line extract from a classic of English literature, with comprehension questions, followed by a 200 to 300 word piece of writing. The oral lasts 10 to 15 minutes: a short conversation, then discussion of a poem or extract. At Balzac, according to the parent association, the written paper lasts 60 minutes for collège entry and 90 minutes for lycée, where a critical appreciation of a text is expected. For sixième at Camille-Sée, the section describes a 30 to 35 line passage and 15 to 20 lines of writing.

Maurice-Ravel also publishes its marking scheme, which is worth a close look. Out of 60 points, the school record counts for 20, the written test for 20 and the oral for 20, split between language and motivation. A third of the mark is settled before test day, on school reports. The section says it looks closely at French and history grades, not only English. That makes sense: history and geography are taught half in the section language, except in Chinese sections, where the subject is mathematics.

On teacher and parent forums, the same points keep coming up. Parents complain that without past papers they cannot judge their child's chances, and teachers reply that this is deliberate, to discourage cramming. One section teacher explains that his school does not only take bilingual pupils, or it would not fill its classes, and that it looks for genuine interest in the country's culture. Other parents report the opposite experience: a strong file not even shortlisted for the tests, or, in towns with many English-speaking families, places going mostly to children with an English-speaking parent.

Your first choice decides who reads the file

This is the least understood part of the process. The application is assessed at the school ranked first: that school runs the oral, ranks the candidates and puts them to the education authority's panel. Ranking is not a formality. A family that puts Balzac first will be judged by Balzac, against Balzac's applicants.

Figures published by the parent association of Balzac's English section give a sense of the competition. For September 2022 entry, 270 candidates sat the section's tests: 55 for sixième with 20 admitted, 150 for seconde with 35 admitted, the section's own pupils included, and 30 for première (Year 12, 11th grade) with one admitted. These are the only figures of this kind I have found, they date from 2022 and cover one section, but they show where the places are: at the start of collège and the start of lycée, almost nowhere else. The British section at Camille-Sée says much the same thing in its own way: seconde is the year with the most openings, and the highest scorers usually get their first choice.

Officially, students who do not live in Paris can apply. The education authority's pages state that recruitment is open across académies. In practice places are scarce, and a suburban student competes for the same seats as Parisians.

After seconde: the BFI

The international section as such ends after seconde. In première and terminale (the last two years of lycée), the student prepares the BFI, which replaced the old international option of the baccalaureate (the OIB) in September 2022 and has counted in the exam since 2024. Its specific subjects, "knowledge of the world", advanced language and literature, and a subject taught in the section language, make up about 40% of the final baccalaureate mark. The BFI also takes students in première who were not in a section, on the same criteria as for seconde; in terminale, only students already following the programme and moving to Paris can apply, if places remain. How the BFI compares with the IB Diploma is covered in BFI or IB.

Results are not published section by section. The ministry publishes each lycée's results as a whole, which gives an order of magnitude without isolating the section.

There are no tuition fees. Section parent associations pay for part of what the state does not cover: at Balzac, the English-section association pays BFI exam costs and part of the cost of examiners from abroad; at Maurice-Ravel, families buy the set novels and pay for trips. Expect long days too: Balzac's association describes days that often run from 8am to 5.30pm, with about eight extra hours a week of literature and history-geography in the section language.

What I look at before recommending a section

Language first, obviously, but written more than spoken. Children who have lived abroad often speak very well and write less well than they think, and the written test decides the shortlist. Then the French and history reports, which count in the file and show how the student will cope with a double workload. Then the map itself: I prefer a collège whose section continues into the lycée in the same language, even across Paris, to a convenient collège that will mean sitting the tests again at fifteen. For a child whose written English is not there yet, or as a parallel application, state-contracted bilingual schools such as Jeannine Manuel, the EIB or Sévigné recruit differently; I compare them with the sections in my guide to bilingual schools in Paris.

For a family arriving mid-year, the calendar is usually the real obstacle. The January to March window does not reopen, and an application filed in April counts for the following year. The British sections do, however, let candidates still living abroad sit the written test locally, supervised by their current school: ask for it when you file.

Choosing the section, ranking the choices in the right order, preparing a literature paper and a motivation interview in a language the child speaks at home but has never analysed: that takes several months, and it starts well before mid-January. At Carmine, we do this work with families, from choosing the school to preparing the tests; the school entry page describes how.