The Lycée Pierre Mendès France is a French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

-medium lycée (high school) in Mutuelleville

Mutuelleville

Mutuelleville is a district of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It is located north of the downtown area, and borders Parc du Belvedere on its southwest end. The main street through Mutuelleville is Avenue Jugurtha....

, Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

, Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

. It was founded in 1956 as an annex of the Lycée Carnot of Tunis, and originally named the "Lycée Francais de Mutuelleville". It was renamed in honour of politician Pierre Mendès-France

Pierre Mendès-France

Pierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...

 on the occasion of President François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

's 1983 visit to Tunisia.

President Jacques Chirac

Jacques Chirac

Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

visited the school in December, 2003. He caused some controversy when he told the students "Wearing a veil, whether we want it or not, is a sort of aggression that is difficult for us to accept."