Promenade Beach (Rock Beach)

History

The seafront was the public face of French Pondicherry. The Old Lighthouse was built here under Governor Saint-Simon and first lit on 1 September 1836; its engineer, Louis Guerre, also designed the church of Our Lady of Angels a few streets away. The Hôtel de Ville, the town hall of the French administration, still faces the sea and now houses the Puducherry Municipal Office.

The French War Memorial was erected in 1937 and inaugurated on 3 April 1938 in memory of the people of French India who died in the First World War; Pondicherry sent 500 combatants overseas, of whom 75 died. Opposite it stands the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, ringed by carved pillars brought from Gingee Fort, and at the southern end is Dupleix Park with the statue of Joseph François Dupleix, governor of French India.

What to see

• The French War Memorial, lit up every year on 14 July, and the Gandhi statue opposite it
• The Old Lighthouse of 1836: a 29-metre round tower on a square base
• The Hôtel de Ville, the town hall of the French period
• The statue of Jawaharlal Nehru on the French heritage walk
• Dupleix Park and the statue of Dupleix at the southern end

Why visit

One walk takes in the whole French Quarter seafront and its monuments, and the beach faces east over the Bay of Bengal, towards the sunrise.

Before you go

This is a rocky shore with a promenade, not a sandy bathing beach. For sand, the beaches south of the town (Pondy Marina, Eden, Paradise) are the ones the Department of Tourism has developed.