Saint-Bauzile, Saint-Étienne-du-Valdonnez, etc.). The private college is the college of . The continuity of private education is at the Lycée Notre-Dame. Another high school, the Lycée Emile Peytavin allows, in addition to general education, technical and vocational education. Finally, now attached to the Lycée Notre-Dame, we find the Private Professional Lycée Plaisance. Institutions of the city are also have one of the best success rates for the Baccalauréat diploma, compared with the other schools in the area, which puts them in the first half best institutions of France. At the level of higher education, Mende welcomes a BTS in its different high schools. An , branch of the University of Perpignan, offers four courses: Multimedia, gerontology, City Council Secretary, and tourism. It is located in the buildings of the former Lamolle barracks, which had housed the . Finally the city also houses a teacher training Institute, an (IFSIL), a and a . Cultural events and festivities The festivities of the town of Mende are held annually in the month of August. They were related to the feast of , on 21 August. They are decorated with a flower parade and the election of "Miss Mende". Then, in September, every other year, Mende hosts its beer festival, with its twin town of Wunsiedel. The city has also several sports events. At the cultural level, the "meetings of writers" were organized at the beginning of the 1990s, in August. They have welcomed regional authors but also renowned authors such as Calixthe Beyala and Michel Folco. Health The department has a hospital, which opened in 1970. Five of the six services are located in Mende: Guy de Chauliac Hospital, the retirement home, the convalescence centre, the Training Institute in Nursing and boarding school. The sixth branch, another retirement home, is based at Rieutort-de-Randon. The hospital has approximately 70 physicians and 750 health professionals. Moreover, since 2011, it welcomes in its structure the home of the Paul Éluard psychological and psychiatric unit, a branch of the of Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole. To this one can add 20 physicians, general practitioners and specialists as well as a centre of firefighters. Though, if the implementation of the current hospital is fairly recent, the city has a fairly old hospital story. In the 12th century was the "alms house" for the population. This hospital, located on Rue Angiran, derived its income from the operation of a mill in the district