Que votre vie d’officier soit animée par l’engagement personnel, le travail et la compétence entretenue, la soif d’apprendre, la fraternité, l’ouverture d’esprit, l’honnêteté et le courage au quotidien, pour être des chefs respectés et suivis. (…) L’engagement sans limite de vos subordonnés et leur fierté de vous avoir pour chef seront votre récompense.
- Le général de division Collet, commandant les écoles de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan
Saint-Cyr or to give its full name L’École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, French national military academy at Coëtquidan, was founded in Fontainebleau in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1808 Napoleon moved it to the town of Saint-Cyr-l’École near Versailles, on the site of a famous school founded in the 17th century by Madame de Maintenon, wife of Louis XIV. The buildings at Saint-Cyr-l’École were destroyed in 1944, and after the war the academy was transferred to Coëtquidan, in Brittany. The popular name was retained.
Throughout most of its history Saint-Cyr prepared officers for the infantry and cavalry and for staff positions within those services, while the École Polytechnique in Paris trained engineers, artillerymen, and other technical officers.
After World War II, however, Saint-Cyr took over the training of most technical officers. Women were admitted to the academy for the first time in 1983. The Combined Arms School or Joint military school, known as École Militaire Interarmes or EMIA, is a military school of the French Army intended to train officers who have risen from the ranks and now forms part of Saint-Cyr.
The French commanders Philippe Pétain and Henri Giraud were trained at Saint-Cyr. Charles de Gaulle, who graduated with honours in 1911, taught military history there after World War I.
Its motto is Ils s'instruisent pour vaincre, literally meaning "They study to vanquish" or, more freely put, "Training for victory". French cadet officers are called saint-cyriens or cyrards.
**cadet officers of École Militaire Interarmes or EMIA