26/01/2026
We recently had the pleasure of hearing from Neil Addison, who attended ‘The English School of Paris’ (as it was then called) from 1962 to 1964, when the school was housed in the Château de Monte-Cristo.
In this 1963 photograph of classes 2 and 3, Neil can be seen at the far left of the first standing row.
Neil writes: “My family is British but I remember several of my classmates were American or Canadian, as well as a few French children. You can see this from some of the American style haircuts and the girls’ footwear. Some students might have had parents working at S.H.A.P.E. that was based in Paris at the time. Others, like my father, worked for American companies or were diplomats and had been posted to Paris which for them was a wonderful and exciting experience.
The school canteen, which served us lunch, provided us with jugs of water mixed with red wine. In those days one didn’t drink water straight from the tap in Paris! I suppose the purpose of the red wine was to sterilise the tap water? We were under strict instructions from parents not to drink it.
In 1964 my father was posted to New York, so we moved all our belongings, including our much-loved Peugeot 404, to Connecticut (travelling by ship on the original Cunard Queen Elizabeth) where we lived for 4 years before returning to the UK.”
Thank you so much, Neil, for sharing these memories of your time at the School. We can confirm that wine is no longer served in the school canteen!
