An Education

The allure of fine jewellery has inspired generations of lovers, artisans and collectors. Now, you can dive into the exclusive world of haute jewels with a class at Paris’s L’École.

Travelling with a purpose has become a thing. It’s no longer enough to book a ticket and find a room in an exciting, faraway city, you’ve got to actually do something while you’re there — besides Instagram everything you eat and drink. It accounts for the sharp rise in experience-based travel, in which your journey and destination combine with a passion — or encourage the beginnings of one. It also means you get to take home a souvenir of the mind. Cooking-classes with handsome hatted chefs, ceramics courses with local artisans and yoga workshops in hard-to-find jungle spots all fit the bill. But nothing is quite as chic as taking a class at L’École.

L’École, the School of Jewelry Arts, is the privately run Paris-based school sponsored by haute jewel house Van Cleef & Arpels. Based in a gorgeous 18th-century building on Place Vendôme, the spiritual home of so many esteemed joaillerie maisons, the school has 30 professors with impressive pedigrees. We’re talking Princeton-graduate art historians, gemologists, watchmakers and master craftsmen, each working within their particular field of expertise.