No photographs were found from the five years JP Giroud was in Paris, the two years (1956-1958) at Lycée Saint Louis (a Lycée that offers preparatory classes for the “Grandes Écoles”) and the three years (1958-1961) at École Centrale. Studying in Paris on the cusp of the 1960s, JP Giroud has experienced traditional, rigorous engineering studies and perhaps glimpsed the beginnings of cultural restlessness. The three pictures included for this period concern the engineering studies and are from the book “École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures : Livre d'or” (1960) by publisher Raymond Lacour in Casablanca, suggested by Ms Fabienne Jolly, Assistant Archivist of the CentraleSupélec Archives.

Regarding this photograph titled “Amphithéâtre de 1ére année” JP Giroud commented: “Unfortunately, the photo of the amphitheater does not show the famous clock that made one turn in 90 minutes, i.e. the length of a course!”

Regarding these photographs titled “Maison des élèves” (left) and “Chambre des élèves” (right), JP Giroud confirmed that indeed he was at Maison des élèves on rue de Cîteaux.

As for cultural restlessness, the curious site visitor is invited to search the internet using the prompt “Students of the École Centrale announcing the ball of their school in the Soufflot street in Paris, October 19, 1960”. The search will return a copyrighted photograph described by AI as follows: “On October 19, 1960, students from the École Centrale held a lively, colorful parade on Soufflot Street in Paris to announce their upcoming school ball. The procession featured a Citroën 2CV car topped with a giant balloon and included students in spirited, creative attire, with the Pantheon visible in the background.” From the photograph, we see that the ball took place on Saturday, 3 December 1960. JP Giroud was asked whether he attended the balls of École Central and he replied “of course, all of them”. He also added that the ball was typically organized by last-year students and that he was Number 2 of the four-member student committee organizing the ball of the 1961 class. Regarding the photograph, he commented that the bee was the symbol of École Centrale Paris and that “piston” used to be the nickname of the school (nickname already old fashioned).

Note: The publisher Raymond Lacour could not be tracked down. Since no rights holders could be identified, the photographs are included here for reference only.