EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris vs Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
🇫🇷 Paris · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
Neither EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris nor Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye sits in a market with a public inspectorate, so both are assessed on verifiable accreditation, curriculum authorisation, and published data rather than an official quality rating. Curriculum is the core differentiator: EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris offers National, British, IB while Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye offers National, British, American — the choice should follow the family's target qualification system. On cost, Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye has the noticeably lower entry fee — a material difference for budget-conscious families. See the table below for the figures, and verify against each school's own published fees.
Key Facts
| EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris | Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | National / British / IB | National / British / American |
| Ages | 3-18 | 3-18 |
| Languages of instruction | French, English | French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian |
| Annual fees | approx. EUR 15,393-17,051/year (EIB Grenelle, 2024-2025) | Free French state tuition; international-section association fees approx. EUR 2,000-9,300/year (varies by section, grade and payer) |
| Enrollment | 3,000 | — |
| Boarding | Day only | Day only |
| Accreditations | French Ministry of National Education (national curriculum; 4 of 8 EIB schools sous contrat d'association, incl. EIB Monceau), Cambridge Assessment International Education (exam preparation), International Baccalaureate Organization (Lycee EIB Etoile, IB World School), Globeducate (school group; EIB joined 2011) | French Ministry of Education (Éducation nationale, Académie de Versailles), Baccalauréat Français International (BFI / formerly OIB) |
Strengths
- ✓Deep heritage and scale: founded 1954, ~3,000 students across eight Paris-area campuses, with Globeducate group backing since 2011.
- ✓Authentic French/English bilingualism on the national curriculum (commonly ~50/50 at primary), not a bolt-on English stream.
- ✓Multiple credible exit pathways at the lycee: French Baccalaureate, Baccalaureat Francais International (British section) and the IB Diploma.
- ✓Strong reported French Baccalaureate outcomes (100% pass, 98% honours on the school's own figures).
- ✓Continuous nursery-to-lycee provision (ages 3-18) within one network, easing progression.
- ✓Free state-funded core tuition — by far the lowest-cost route to a recognised international/bilingual education in the Paris area
- ✓Fourteen national sections delivering genuine native-language, native-culture instruction toward the Baccalauréat Français International
- ✓Outstanding documented results — baccalauréat pass rates of 99-100% and a 'mention' (honours) rate above 90%
- ✓Structured one-year immersion ('Français Spécial') that absorbs non-French-speaking newcomers into the French system
- ✓Graduates routinely leave trilingual or quadrilingual, with a strong Concours Général and university-placement track record
Trade-offs
- !No published graded inspection verdict exists (French regulatory context), limiting independent quality benchmarking.
- !Fee transparency is partial and varies by campus; only third-party figures for one campus are clearly published.
- !The eight schools are split sous contrat / hors contrat, so governance and oversight are not uniform across the network.
- !Risk of confusion with the separate ICS Paris (ex-'EIB Victor Hugo'), an IB school under the same group but a distinct entity.
- !Diploma breadth (BFI / IB) is concentrated at the senior Etoile campus rather than offered network-wide.
- !No boarding — it is a day school across several sites, so it cannot serve families needing residential places
- !Selective, language-dependent admission means it is not the open-access school its 'free public' label implies
- !The 'double enseignement' workload (full French curriculum plus the section programme) is heavy and not for every child
- !Section association fees and one-off entrance charges still apply, and vary confusingly by section, grade and whether an employer pays
Best Fit For
- • Franco-British or international families wanting genuine bilingual schooling anchored in the French system.
- • Families seeking a single network spanning nursery to lycee in central/western Paris.
- • Students aiming at the French Baccalaureate, BFI (British section) or the IB Diploma at lycee level.
- • Globally mobile families valuing 70+ nationalities and Globeducate-group continuity.
- • Bilingual or expatriate families wanting a recognised international section without private-international fees
- • Academically strong, self-motivated children who can carry a dual-curriculum workload
- • Families targeting the Baccalauréat Français International and multilingual fluency
- • Households already settled in the Saint-Germain-en-Laye / western-Paris area able to commute daily
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
School-reported, unverified: the network cites a 100% French Baccalaureate pass rate with 98% of candidates achieving honours; no independent verification of university destinations was found in public sources.
School-reported, unverified: graduates are described as progressing to leading French and international universities, with a strong record in the Concours Général; no independently audited destination breakdown is published.
More Comparisons
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I choose EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris or Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye?
EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris is best for: Franco-British or international families wanting genuine bilingual schooling anchored in the French system.. Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is best for: Bilingual or expatriate families wanting a recognised international section without private-international fees. The right choice depends on target curriculum, budget, and family priorities — the two are not linearly comparable.
How do fees compare between EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris and Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye?
EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris: approx. EUR 15,393-17,051/year (EIB Grenelle, 2024-2025). Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye: Free French state tuition; international-section association fees approx. EUR 2,000-9,300/year (varies by section, grade and payer). Verify against each school's own published fees; some figures are sourced from third-party aggregators.
What curricula do EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris and Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye offer?
EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris: National, British, IB. Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye: National, British, American.
Do EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris or Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye offer boarding?
EIB (École Internationale Bilingue) Paris: day school only. Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye: day school only.
Questions parents ask
This comparison is BrightKey's independent assessment using verifiable public data only. University-placement figures are school-reported and not independently verified. BrightKey takes no payments from schools. Our method →