Alliance Française of Madras gets a new building

Learning French and embracing culture go hand-in-hand, says French Ambassador recalling that the France and Chennai’s relations date back to 18th century

Gobally, the number of French speakers has never been so high in history and statistics indicate that there are roughly 320 million of them, said Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France to India.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a new building on the Alliance Française of Madras premises on Monday. A city landmark, the Alliance Française has been functioning on College Road since 1953 and the newly inaugurated space at “Espace 24” has been envisioned as a centre for cultural research and studies. 

“With the number of speakers growing, it is important that we continue to support the Alliance Française and the work they do. Festivals such as the French Rendez-Vous, which the Alliance Française helped organise, are important as learning French and embracing culture go hand-in-hand,” he said. 

The Ambassador said that Chennai and France’s relations date back to the 18th century and that they were keen on continuing to build more bridges with India.

Lise Talbot Barré, Consul-General of France in Pondicherry and Chennai, said the new building would give them the opportunity to welcome more students.

“We hope to see the French language bloom even more. I thank the government of Tamil Nadu for all their support for our cultural activities,” she said. 

Pravin Kannanur, President, Alliance Française of Madras, was awarded the ‘Chevalier des Arts Et Lettres’ decoration on behalf of the French Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malik.