Saint Cyr cöetquidan.

On my way back from holidays I went to the french military school of Saint Cyr Coëtquidan where I've been working some years ago.

The emperor Napoleon Bonaparte created "l'école spéciale militaire", the special military school in 1808 in the small city of Saint Cyr near Versailles, not far away from Paris.

For 150 years french officers followed courses in this school.

In 1944, the english army suspected the wermacht to hide some ballistics rockets, the infamous V2 in the buildings, a bomber raid was prepared and the school was almost entirely destroyed.

In 1945, decision is made to transfer the school in a former artillery training field in bretagne (west part of France)"Coëtquidan".

The school is now divided into 3 distinctive parts:

The ESM (special military school). a 3 years cursus.

The EMIA (interarms military school) where students are already soldiers and become officers after 2 years.

The EMCTA (military school for technical and administrative corps).

The camp itself is a very beautiful place located in woods near a small town called "guer" (funny enough "guerre" in french means war).

It's basically a square with each side measuring about 10 kilometers.

The town itself has 5000 inhabitants with 4000 militaries among them, needless to say it's a safe place to live.

The cinema.

The cour Rivoli has its name from a french military victory.

In the building stand the headquarters, a guard room and the offices.

Roofs protects students from rain while wearing great uniforms for ceremony.

real hi-tech transmission device.

the fencing room.

The jail, no longer used since 1991.

The fire brigade.

The protestant church.

French armoured troop carrier "vab" the 50 machine gun has been removed.

the Museum entrance.

The shooting range.

200m long with camera on each target.

I did my best training sessions with my Ar15 a2 there.

Roads inside the camp are in very good shape.