Collège Mignet (Mignet College), Aix-en-Provence

Mignet College is named after Francois-Auguste Mignet, a 19th-century historian and journalist. The educational establishment is located on Cardinal Street in the Mazarin district of Aix. It was authorized as a royal college in 1603 by King Henri IV. The college was under the authority of the Jesuits (a Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers ) until 1773 and then managed by the Doctrinaire Fathers, expelled in 1790.

During the Napoleonic era, the college reopened. With the momentary Restoration of the Monarchy, it was "College Bourbon." It is housed in the former convents of the Benedictines and the Ursulines. The city bought the college in 1878 and changed it to a High School under the name Zola High School (Lycée Zola). It became Mignet College in 1976.

The facade of the building on Cardinale Street came about from joining the Ursuline and Benedictine buildings. The complex has been partially registered and classified as a historical monument since 1913. The classified portions are the former entrance of the convent of the Benedictines (now the southeast facade) and the grand staircase of Honor.

Famous former students are Jean-Baptiste Baille, scientist; Paul Cezanne, painter; Darius Milhaud, composer; and Emile Zola, writer. Marcel Pagnol, a writer and faculty member, was an English tutor. Cezanne and Zola were inseparable friends at school. Cezanne received his baccalaureate in 1858 with the notation, "quite well."