Khâgne is an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat [approximately at age 17-18] to prepare for the difficult entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Superieure. Only the better and more ambitious students take khâgne. Wiktionary has a definition of: French Wikipedia en français French in its formal sense and used in its capitalized form, denotes: Something from or related to France. ... The quadrangle at the main ENS building on rue dUlm is known as the Cour aux Ernests – the Ernests being the goldfish in the pond. ...