Paris · Stop 1 of 6 · 1751
École Militaire and Place Joffre
The grand façade at the opposite end of the Champ de Mars from the Eiffel Tower. A royal military school from 1751, still training French officers, with a marshal on horseback standing guard in front.
Worth seeing when you're there
- The main façade by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the king's own architect, seen head-on from the Champ de Mars.
- The equestrian statue of Marshal Joffre on the square, by Maxime Real del Sarte, unveiled in 1939.
- Turn round: the whole Champ de Mars runs straight to the Eiffel Tower from here. This is where our walk starts.
- The dome and the clock above the central pavilion.
A little history
In 1751 Louis XV founded a royal school to train 500 young noblemen with no money of their own, an idea pressed by Marshal de Saxe and backed by Madame de Pompadour; part of the money came from a tax on playing cards. Napoleon studied here from October 1784, aged 15, and finished the course in one year instead of two. Joffre, commander-in-chief in 1914, stopped the German advance at the Marne.
Getting there, hours, cost
Metro École Militaire (line 8) is at the square. The school is a working military site and not open to visitors; the square and the Champ de Mars are public.
- Open
- Square and Champ de Mars: always
- Closed
- The school: not open to the public
- Cost
- Free
- Note
- Best light in the morning, looking towards the Tower.
Hours change. Recheck official sources close to your date. Navigate here · Trail map
Nearby: eat, see, rest
- Moustache Artisan Glacier Ice cream · 5 min on foot
- Champ de Mars lawns Picnic lawns · 6 min on foot
- La Fontaine de Mars Bistro · 7 min on foot
- Maison Bergeron Bakery · 7 min on foot
More on the trail map and in The Eiffel Tower to Trocadéro walk.
On the trail
This landmark is Stop 1 of 6 of Seine Clearly: The ARIA Calibration, our self-guided puzzle walk through the Cubbon Park district. The clue here uses what you can see from exactly where you are standing.