Keen to smooth tensions over the euro zone crisis when Hollande and Merkel met this month to mark 50 years of Franco-German reconciliation, French chefs chose to reproduce the famous meal of filet of beef and raspberry macaroons prepared in 1962 for post-war leaders Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer when they signed their friendship treaty.
Students listened to lectures, ate communal meals of lamb, chicken and rice, and worshipped in a makeshift prayer area -- a portion of a large banquet room with sheets spread on the carpet to mark a sanctified zone.