College de France
College de France
We turn right into Rue Valette and then left through Rue de Lanneau to Collège de France.
All buildings in this area are university buildings. In the 12th C. teachers and students evaded the power of the Ile de la Cité bishops and moved here. Many university colleges grew up here, the first in 1215.
The colleges or Universités in Paris now number 13 and have about 200,000 students. The buildings are spread over the city, but here their concentration is greatest. Learning gave the district its name, the Latin quarter, even if no Latin is spoken in its streets any more.
Sorbonne
We continue along Collège de France and come to the back of Sorbonne at Rue Saint-Jacques. We can make a detour around Sorbonne by turning left into that street, then right into Rue Cujas and finally to the right along Rue Cousin and Rue de la Sorbonne to the front of the Sorbonne.
The Sorbonne is the most famous of the Univeristés, founded 1253 as a college of theology. The first printing house in France started there in 1469. In 1968 the Sorbonne became one of the main centres of student unrest in France.
