Ermitage International School

In Brief

If you want the IB in a genuinely bilingual, residential-feel campus west of Paris and can live with a 20-minute RER commute, Ermitage is hard to beat at this price point. The French bilingual track is a different proposition - academically rigorous, but it's essentially a French school with bilingual enrichment, not an international school.

Ermitage sits in a converted chateau complex in Maisons-Lafitte, 20 minutes from central Paris by RER A. Around 1,500 students span two distinct tracks: the French Bilingual Programme, which follows the French national curriculum with English immersion, and the International track, running IB MYP and Diploma for ages 11-18, with an International Primary Programme for ages 5-10. The school is now approved as an IB PYP Candidate School. Around 80 nationalities and 49 languages spoken; 2025 IB average of 34 and a 100% French Bac pass rate with honours position it in the top tier for results in the Paris region.

The campus atmosphere is markedly different from city-centre schools. Families describe it as informal, welcoming and more socially cohesive than schools in Paris itself - the school gates culture is friendlier, new parents integrate faster. Boarding (5 or 7-day) is available from age 11, housed in three historic properties near the main campus. The Good Schools Guide calls it 'the least expensive IB school in the Paris area' - IB day fees at EUR 24,950-28,950 are considerably below ISP and ASP. The French Bilingual track is a genuine bargain at EUR 7,500-8,300.

Maisons-Lafitte is 35-40 minutes from the Marais or eastern Paris by RER, which is a real daily friction point. The multi-site campus - several converted mansions spread across the town - means older children move between buildings; the spread can feel disjointed. The school was acquired by private investment fund Platina Partners, which families are watching carefully; infrastructure investment is promised but the ownership change is recent. Some families have noted that the community is less cohesive across the school than within each programme, because IB and French Bilingual students mix less than you'd expect.