Altitude sickness: Inside the world of the elite Swiss boarding school

Altitude sickness: Inside the world of the elite Swiss boarding school

Macbook Pros for umbrellas, Loro Piana for uniform, and future dictators for classmates — just what do the world's most expensive schools say about the modern elite?

Here’s a good bit of trivia. Can you guess what the lead singer of The Strokes has in common with the Crown Prince of Yugoslavia? What ties Sean Lennon with King Juan Carlos I of Spain? How are the Niarchos shipping magnates connected to the Bhutanese royal family? You’ll find the answer on the shores of Lake Geneva, where, among the neat vineyards and chestnut trees, there is a boarding school that caters exclusively to the rich and powerful. Since the 1880s, Institut Le Rosey has taught Brazilian heiresses, Congolese politicians, Italian fashion tycoons and enough European royals to keep the revolutionary guillotine operators on the Place de la Concorde busy for at least a month.

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