History

French Institutions

The schools, consulate, research centres, and cultural organisations that France left behind in Pondicherry — many of which are still operating today.

Lycée Français International

Founded 1826 as the Collège Royal de Pondichéry. Bicentenary: 2026.

In autumn 1826 the same governor who opened the Pensionnat de Jeunes Filles also founded a college for boys. N…

Consulat Général de France

The diplomatic thread that was never cut

France is one of the few countries that maintains a Consulate General in a city of Pondicherry's size. The rea…

EFEO Pondicherry Centre

École française d'Extrême-Orient, founded Saigon 1900

Founded in Saigon in 1900 to study the civilisations of Asia, the EFEO relocated its scholars and collections …

Petit Séminaire

Founded 1792, one of India's oldest schools in continuous operation

Started to train clergy in the last decade of the eighteenth century, it has been teaching boys without interr…

Alliance Française de Pondichéry

French language and culture, with a particular local meaning

The Alliance Française operates in over a hundred countries. The Pondicherry branch is unusual: it works in a …

Pensionnat de Jeunes Filles

Founded 1826, secularized by France in 1903, then absorbed by India

The first structured institution of girls' education in French India. It was started by missionaries, taken ov…

The Cluny Schools

Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, in Pondicherry since 1827

Anne-Marie Javouhey founded her congregation in 1807 to educate girls that no one else was educating. Her sist…

Collège Calvé

Founded 1875 by a Tamil philanthropist, now a heritage school under restoration

Calvé Soupraya Chettiar used his own money in 1875 to open a school for Hindu and Muslim children who had nowh…

Foyer du Soldat

The social afterlife of the French imperial army in Pondicherry

Thousands of Tamil men from Pondicherry served in the French army across four wars and three continents. When …