- Location
- French Quarter, facing the Church of Our Lady of Angels, Pondicherry
- Material
- White marble
- Timings
- Open-air, visible at any time
- Ideal time needed
- 15 to 30 minutes
Who was Joan of Arc?
Joan of Arc was a peasant girl from Domrémy in north-eastern France who, during the Hundred Years' War with England, believed she had been called to help Charles VII. She joined the army at the siege of Orléans in 1429, and the victories that followed allowed Charles to be crowned at Reims.
In 1430 she was captured, handed over to the English and tried; she was burned at the stake at Rouen in 1431, aged about 19. A retrial some 25 years later cleared her name, and she was canonised in 1920. She is honoured as one of the patron saints of France and is often called the Maid of Orléans.
The statue
The French link made Pondicherry a natural home for her statue. The white marble figure stands in a small, well-kept garden directly in front of the Church of Our Lady of Angels, a pale, arched church built in the 19th century. The pairing of church and statue makes a good photograph, particularly in soft morning or late-afternoon light.
Tips for your visit
The statue is in the open, so you can see it at any time. It takes just a few minutes, but the surrounding French Quarter repays a slow walk, ideally early in the morning before the heat builds and the traffic picks up, with its yellow and white villas, cafés and bougainvillea.
Nearby you can take in Promenade Beach, Gandhi Mandapam on the seafront, the Botanical Garden and, a short drive south, the Chunnambar Boat House for the ferry to Paradise Beach. We can arrange a Pondicherry weekend from Chennai, Bangalore or Virudhachalam.
Also nearby
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