In the founding decree of October 1794,
the idea was that people came from all over,
were taught to the highest level and went away again.
It was precisely this idea of coming and going
that reigned at the ENS 220 years ago.
The school today is an extraordinarily varied world:
in science, human and social sciences and humanities.
There is more than one ENS.
There are laboratories where they do strange things
with lots of equipment.
There are some rooms, even in the basement,
which have a certain charm because there is dance, theatre,
big and small amphitheatres,
all in quite a small space,
with a fine view of the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève.
The spirit of the school for me, as for many people,
is the Cour aux Ernests,
the front entrance with its Republican inscriptions,
and the former infirmary, now the philosophy faculty.
No irony there.
Universities are getting bigger.
But the ENS
is like a family, with few people
and a mixture of disciplines.
Multidisciplinarity is what I value most in the school.
It is an important aspect for geosciences.
In our department we have people who are, what we call, bio-geo-chemists.
We do not know whether they are geologists, biologists or chemists.
And it does not matter.
The school's originality since it began was to unite
scientists, literary types and others in one school.
There is mutual interest.
What's important to our students
is to be part of the same generation.
It's clearly important for us all to be together.
Philosophers and neuro-scientists work together
thanks to the rue d'Ulm site.
I advise new students to explore all aspects of the school,
to take advantage of the interdisciplinarity
and to go out.
Paris is a wonderful city
both culturally and scientifically.
Being in Paris is also extremely attractive for our colleagues.
It promotes exchanges with our foreign colleagues.
The training we give here
is through research for research,
with the chance of very different opening.
The students mix with the researchers
and have access to all the experiments done here.
The school has developed a lot.
It's now a major research centre,
which rivals the world's best universities.
But it's anchored
in many traditions, hence its strength.
This site is home
to a small number of remarkable students,
in all disciplines, arts and sciences,
and they learn to work together among the best researchers.
That's the chemistry that give the ENS its beauty
and its unique character.
The ENS is a Republican school.
There's a real link to secularism, public service,
free access, fraternity.
These are our strongest values.
I came to Paris from the provinces with my accent.
The school allowed me to do what I couldn't elsewhere.
For me, entering those gates is symbolic:
Republican meritocracy still means something.
No-one cared where I came from or who I was.
They just said: "Work hard and come in."
Among our students there is certainly a Jaurès,
a Sartre, a Kastler, a Villani.
I always tell new arrivals to look to the future
and build their own syllabus, their own subjects,
find their own research programme
and follow their predecessors into glory.
Welcome to the ENS.
Welcome to the École Normale.
Welcome to the ENS.