École Française d'Extrême-Orient

Puducherry (Pondicherry)


This handsome heritage building and library is home to over 11,000 Indology books and a series of Sanskrit, Tamil and Manipravalam palm-leaf manuscripts. Visitors are free to explore the building.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Puducherry (Pondicherry) attractions

1. Seafront

0.1 MILES

Pondy is a seaside town, but that doesn’t make it a beach destination; the city’s sand is a thin strip of dirty brown that slurps into a seawall of jagged…

2. Notre Dame des Anges

0.21 MILES

Looking out to sea, past a statue of Joan of Arc (opposite), Notre Dame des Anges was completed in 1855, and is arguably Pondy's most attractive church…

3. Gandhi Memorial

0.41 MILES

The main sight along seafront Goubert Ave is this bronze striding statue of Gandhi.

4. Bharathi Park

0.42 MILES

A shady green haven that's always busy, Bharathi Park faces the neoclassical governor's residence, Raj Nivas, on its north side.

5. Old Lighthouse

0.42 MILES

Pondy's lighthouse was completed in the 1830s and functioned for more than a century before being replaced in 1979.

6. Sacred Heart Basilica

0.48 MILES

Inaugurated in 1907, the Sacred Heart Basilica is a soaring brown-and-white neo-Gothic structure beautified by restored stained glass.

8. Puducherry Museum

0.51 MILES

Goodness knows how this converted late-18th-century villa keeps its artefacts from disintegrating, considering there’s a whole floor of French-era…