The French connection - Pondicherry

A walk down Rue Dumas and then a right turn at the corner would take you to Rue la Cathedral ... On the way you would catch the fragrance of authentic French cuisines wafting through the air from a number of chic cafes .... Ofcourse the French mademoiselles would occasionally catch your eye !

No, you are not treading on the cobbled paths of Paris but taking a walk through the quaint streets of the city of Pondicherry (derived from the Tamil word "Puducheri" -- the new settlement ). Pondicherry has a strong French flavour to it owing to its centuries old relationship with France (even now there is a French Consul office in its capital). The culture and the architecture of Pondicherry is reminiscent of the days when the French lorded over this region.

It is to this place with the French connection that we made our way on the 15th of August ... ofcourse to celebrate Indepenence day ! We started early in the morning (7.00 am is surely early for all of us !!). The road from Bangalore to Pondicherry is supposed to be good but there was a bad stretch of about 40 km. We calculated that it would take us around 6 hrs to cover the 300 km distance on a trusted Maruti 800. So we would be in Pondicherry for lunch and sure we were !

We drove into Pondicherry at 1330 hrs past the gate that proclaimed on a yellow arch in neat letters "Pondicherry" , nothing more nothing less. The first thing you notice on entering Pondicherry is its cleanliness. The roads give you the feeling that a fresh spell of rain has just swept it clean. The JIPMER (Med School) campus is right at this entrance of Pondicherry and is quite a sprawling facility. We crossed this campus and soon entered into the heart of the city, heading for our hotel - Hotel Sairam. It was the only place where we could get a reservation ! All other hotels were booked weeks in advance for this long weekend. It is a decent hotel with the facilities that are normally provided by any other decent hotel (No swimming pools, no spas !)

After freshening up we headed straight for the ocean front. It is a rocky shore with a road similar to Mumbai's Marine drive but of a smaller scale. It was quite a sight, all decked up just for our visit ! Small festive lights were being put up along the road and also on the Govt offices that dot most part of this water front street. There were also 3 ships from the Navy positioned
quite close to the shore. It was only in the evening that these decorations blossomed. The 3 ships with their outline also lit with numerous lights provided a perfect backdrop to offshore festivities. Pondicherry was celebrating India's independence.

We however didn't while away our time waiting for the sun to set and see the lights spring up along the road. After some honest appreciation of the blue sea and some Masala dose at a seaside eatery, we headed for Auroville. It is an offshoot of the famous Aurobindo ashram and is situated about 10 km from the main city. You reach it by taking a deviation from the ECR (East coast road) and driving through some 8 km of dusty road. It is mostly a ashram for foreigners away from the city. The main tourist attraction at Auroville is the "Matri Mandir", a spherical structure which is mounted with a large number of circular brass scales on the outside and is presumed to be lit up by a single ray of sunlight reflected by numerous reflectors on the inside. We scouted around Auroville in circles for the beach road only to find out from a cycle riding, kurta cladden foreigner that its on the other side of the ECR !

The Auroville beach was a regular beach and not very spectacular. It was also pretty crowded and looked dirty. We spent half an hour gazing at the sea and then headed back for the Pondicherry ocean front which was just begining to light up. After spending some time there we returned back to the hotel to get ready for some exclusive French dinner !

Pondicherry has a number of good restaurants which find a mention in the Internet, mostly with rave reviews (http://www.pondichery.com/english/manger.htm and http://www.tourisminpondicherry.com/tourism/restaurant.shtml). Our pick of the day was "Rendezvous", one of the best in Pondicherry. We tried reserving a table, but was politely declined saying it was already full ! So the best we could do was to wait for a table to get free. Waiting was never a problem as it was very close to the sea front and we walked around marveling the majestic Bay of Bengal. We did finally manage to get a table and had some wonderful steaks.

Our idea of a Pondicherry holiday was to whet our appetites with as much French cuisines as we can. So we started our 2nd day in Pondicherry by vising "Cafe Bistro" for breakfast. It is a part of the Le Club group and is reputed for serving the best breakfast in town. The breakfast consisted of French bread with butter and jam, scrambled egg, fruits and juice. The ambience was pleasant and the Pondicherry heat was kept away by a canopy of trees and roof made of dried coconut leaves. After a rejuvinating breakfast, we headed for the Chunnambar beach resort. The beaches of Pondicherry are not as big or famous as there illustrious cousins of Goa ! They however have their own spendour. (http://tourism.pon.nic.in/beaches.html).
"Plage Paradiso" (Paradise beach) is one such beach tucked away from the rest of the world by some beautiful backwaters. The only way of accessing this beach is by a 3 km boat cruise from the Chunnambar resort. The beach itself is heavenly, very much as its name suggests !! With the vast ocean ahead of you and the sparkling blue waters behind, it is like an island of fine grains of golden sand. Not many people were around as the boats were the only means of reaching this place. We had a fabulous time there and returned back by one memorable boat ride. The boats ferry around 15 people at a time, but on our return trip we were only 4 of us. So naturally we had all the boat to ourselves and the boatman was our friend. A handsome tip added to his good humour and he gave us a pleasure cruise ! He even allowed me to handle the rudder and I was a boatman for a few minutes, surfing the waves at full throttle !!

After this exhilarating experience, we retired to our hotel to allow the sun to cool down ! In the evening we went around the French quarters of Pondichery and checked out the Lt Governor's house (from the outside!) and walked around the Aurobindo Ashram area. There was a music and dance festival going on in the ocean front and Pondicherians were celebrating their annexation to the Indian union on the 16th of August. We shopped around for curios and mementos, to bring back a piece of Pondicherry with us.

We had our final dinner at a place called "Satsang", a restaurant run by a French guy (he looks and speaks like one, so he better be one !). The crowd was good and the decor was great. We had all kinds of seafood, with mashed potatoes, authentic french cuisines we presume. We returned to the hotel for the night. The plan was to hit the road the next morning. After a lazy breakfast at a small restaurant on the sea shore and after a couple of snaps, we wound up our Pondicherry visit and headed back for home, Bangalore.

Pondicherry sure wove its spell around us and we were sure that we would return very soon. There were missed items in our agenda but we didn't care. Pondicherry will beckon again. Viva la Pondicherry ...