That France had five colonies in India – Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Chandernagore, Yanam and Mahe’, is well known. What is not so widely known is that that besides these 5 colonies, they also had tiny territories which they had taken under their control for running trade. These were called “Loges” and were located at Balasore, Surat, Masulipatam, Calicut, Patna and Dacca. The focus of this brief paper is the erstwhile French ‘Loge’ situated in Balasore district of Orissa.

Imagine a small town in 17th century india which had a Foreigners Colony, where the Portugese, the Dutch, the Danes, the French and the British all had their trading houses/factories and residential houses. This was Balasore around 1640-1680. Did we know that the textiles products exported from Balasore to Europe were considered to be of such uniqueness and high quality that muslin handkerchiefs of Balasore became famous as “Balasore Handkerchiefs” and...