Before it rebranded to OpenClassrooms, Site du Zéro was the heart of the French coding community. Its Python course stood out for its conversational tone and hands-on philosophy.

The tutorial was born from a forum culture where experienced developers helped "zeros" (beginners) without judgment.

For many French-speaking developers, "Apprenez à programmer en Python" on the legendary Site du Zéro (now OpenClassrooms ) wasn't just a course—it was the gateway to a career. Originally authored by Vincent Le Goff, this tutorial became the gold standard for its "from scratch" approach, making complex concepts like Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) accessible to total beginners.

It broke the language down into manageable sections, moving from basic syntax and variables to advanced topics like decorators and network programming.

Even years later, the original curriculum continues to influence how Python is taught in French schools and research institutions, where Python now accounts for 41% of research-based software .