Header: located on the East coast of India, bording the Bay of Bengal, Puducherry shows itself as the perfect summer get-away, with its long beaches, promenades by the sea and relaxed atmosphere – the French Riviera of the East. 

We arrived at 5:30am, after a night bus trip from Madurai (our second one, and likely not the last one – we highly recommend night buses in India!). We could not reach our hotel reception, so the only sensible alternative that came to mind was… heading straight to the beach to watch the sunrise. Life has been good to us so far, we cannot complain… 🙂

We had been told by many friends that we would love Pondichéry, as the French called it. That’s easy: Puducherry’s White Town screams French ruling at every step that you take in its clean, wide streets planted with tropical trees. Before you ask: the name White Town refers to the central, historic area – “white” as opposed to the “black” neighbourhoods filthed by everyday harbour and craftmanship activities.

The French and Pondichéry in a nutshell:

The French arrive to Pondichéry, then a little village, in the late XVIIth century, via local authorities who intended to use the Compagnie française des Indes orientales to challenge the Dutch Indian company, already acting up in the region. The French settled down, the Dutch beat them up at some point, the French came back and merrily transformed Pondichéry into their French flagship in India. They would stay here until 1954, and would remain in close relationship with the town until nowadays.

Rahi, our local guide (originally from the Rajasthan state), was taking a French course at the local French Institute. Puducherry inhabitants kept a strong link with France: they can apparently be granted the French citizenship quite easily, providing that they reach a basic level in French (A2). It is really surprising to see so many French references, so far away from the hexagon country. French cafés, shops, hearing many French tourists in the street,… See by yourself!

But rest assured: this is India, and you only need to cross two streets to be back at a local canteen, serving delicious seasoned food for half the price. Or to see the oddest, yet resourceful things done by people. Or to visit an ashram, such as the one dedicated to Sri Arabindo and his follower the Mother, whose graves became a pilgrimage site. Turn off your phone, enter the ashram and go meditate in the flowery garden.

On a general note, I guess that you got from my previous articles that religion is everywhere in India. You cannot walk 5min without seeing a temple, a church, an ashram or a mosque. One evening, when we were going back to our hotel, we witnessed a long line of motorbikes and cars waiting for a blessing, performed by a priest in front of the Ganesh temple. Ganesh being the God of luck, new beginnings and many other positive points, why not getting your new car protected by the Divine? Especially when you take into account that a scooter costs 100,000 rupies and a car 1,000,000 rupies on average (source: our adorable driver of a day), compared to an average yearly salary in Tamil Nadu of 235,200 rupies a year (source: Forbes, but calculation not taking into account the informal sector, so likely overestimated).

Speaking about cars, one thing that surprised us in Puducherry was the many, many police checkpoints. They are used to reduce traffic on the sea front part of the city (and bless them!), but can be found absolutely everywhere. Why? For two reasons: 

– Puducherry benefits from low taxes on alcohol, making it significantly more affordable than in the rest of Tamil Nadu. People come to Pondy to drink themselves up… and become cash cows for the police, who very well caught on the opportunity to fine drivers.

– We are getting closer to a general election in this Indian state… and in a country which ranked 93 out of 180 countries on the corruption perceptions index for 2023, closer to chances of brides. The police officers are then on the look-out…

Pondy (Puducherry’s nickname) was the perfect seaside break after the urban Madurai. Relaxing, colorful streets… but always with this Indian twist!

I also wanted to tell you all about our visit to Auroville, this alternative international society founded in 1968 and officially recognised by the UNESCO. If I have time, I will dedicate an article to it – if I don’t, you can familiarize yourself with the concept here.

See you in Chennai, starting tomorrow! You can follow our detailed itinerary on Polarsteps. We updated today all our Indian next steps, so take a look!