In the 1920s, French scholars and bureaucrats created the Cite Universitaire in Paris. The institution housed university students from around the world. The Cite founders formulated a model for the Cite that reflected ideological concerns in interwar Europe with a focus on pacifism, international education and cultural internationalism. The organisers of the Cite attempted to adhere to these theories to make the organisation viable in the politically strained interwar era while simultaneously demonstrating the continued excellence of French education. The French attempted to combine the goals of international education with the continued hope of national educational superiority. This article describes Germany and France as the earlier "national competition" model of education. It traces the early history of the Cite as it incorporated the new international education model. Finally, it examines sports and social gatherings at the Cite, which was used as a specific venue to show examples of cooperative exchange. (Contains 90 footnotes.)