Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tryst with France is not as recent as it seems. Nearly 34 years ago, he had enrolled at a French teaching institute —Alliance Francaise — in Ahmedabad.

In fact, he was among the earliest members of the institute. He was member no. 11 at the institute in 1981, the year it was established. His membership card surfaced recently, ahead of his visit to France.

"Two months ago, we chanced upon an old membership card with the name Narendra Modi. It belonged to member no A 011 in 1981. We made further inquiries and were thrilled to know that the said person was India's prime minister," said Frederique Terzan, director of the Alliance Francaise D'Ahmedabad.

Aware of Modi's visit to France as part of a tri-nation tour closing in, she immediately informed the French ambassador to India Francois Richier about it. "I also mailed the card to him. He talked to the PM and sought permission to make it public. We are proud that he was a member with our institute way back in 1981 and learned our culture," Terzan said.

The institute's cultural co-ordinator and teacher, Nirja Parmar, was browsing old documents of the institute when she found Modi's membership card.

On what kind of a member Modi was at that time, Frederique said, "I came to know from my predecessor, Philippe Martin, that Modi was a keen reader. He used to visit our library regularly. He was also interested in good movies." She added that Martin had visited Modi when he was the chief minister to seek help for the institute's new building. "Modi had offered all the help to the institute at that time," Terzan said. On whether Modi learned the language, she said, "I will have to check. But he was a great lover of our culture.

The institute operated from a rented building near Gujarat College for 30 years. It shifted to its own building in Shyamal in April 2013. "The discovery of Modi's membership card has put infused new life into our building," said Terzan.

The address that was mentioned on Modi's membership card mentioned Dr Hedgevar Bhavan, Maninagar, which is the RSS headquarters of Gujarat. He used to live there at that time.