The École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) is a French institute dedicated to the study of Asian societies. Translated into English, it approximately means the French School of the Far East. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in what was then French Indochina. After the independence of Vietnam, its headquarters were transferred to Paris. Its main fields of research are archaeology, philology and the study of modern Asian societies.