Photos from Pondicherry

This Dussehra, we took a long-overdue visit to see my family in Chennai. Since Pondicherry is relatively close by, we decided to make a day trip there. Pondicherry is not new to us – we have visited it multiple times (blogged twice about it here and here).

Pondicherry is famous primarily because it’s a former French colony and retains much of its old French heritage. There are several handsome old colonial villas in the French Quarter, which have now turned into hip bars, restaurants, shops, and museums. Pondicherry is also famous because of Auroville – an ideal township experiment that came about in the 1960s. According to their site, Auroville can be described as follows:

Considering we were making a day trip, we decided to do a couple of things – one option was to visit the Botanical Gardens (to indulge in my newfound love of gardening), then head over to the French Quarter and dine at some exciting restaurants/bars/coffee shops (whatever we could squeeze in), and then head out to Auroville in the evening, and then back home.

Botanical Gardens

I”ll be honest – the gardens were a bit meh. For one, it was sweltering and humid. Also, it felt more like a park than a botanical garden. Sure, it had some nice trees, but as such, I’d say the nurseries in Bangalore have a more comprehensive selection of exotic plants.

So, we pretty much wandered about. We saw some signs indicating an aquarium, which excited Piglet, but once we reached it, we saw a dilapidated building with a bunch of fish tanks. Then, we saw signs advertising a toy train only to see this rusty contraption that traveled at maybe 5 km an hour.

So, it was just like a walk in the park. Piglet saw a gorilla statue, so of course, we must take a photo and we headed out well before our one-hour ticket to the park was due to expire.

Not a very promising start to the day.

The French Quarter

I had planned to visit two highly recommended eateries in the French Quarter. The first one – Café des Arts, is hugely popular on Instagram. They have a very Instagrammable exterior wall, the interiors and food are charming too!

Unfortunately, a massive crowd was waiting for tables to get free, and we were told we’d have to wait an hour or longer. We hung around for a bit, but K got hangry and went investigating some other eating joints nearby, and we lucked out with a lovely sofa-style seating at Villa Shanti just down the road.

Villa Shanti may not be as happening and frenetic as Café des Arts, but it was just perfect for us. Relaxed and elegant, with a broader variety of food (both Indian and continental), we loved the ambiance so much, we spent more time than planned just hanging out there, escaping from the afternoon heat.

The food and drinks were both excellent, and I loved the calm, leisurely service – the whole experience was like dining at a Gymkhana club or something (minus the shitty club food).

Here are some photos of the food.

We also ordered some drinks and starters. My mom and I settled on Margaritas (my favorite cocktail), K had a chilled beer, Snubnose got a Virgin Mojito, and Piglet got an excruciatingly sweet orange juice (which he loved).

My mom forbids me to include any pics of her online, so she’s been cropped out.

After lunch, we hung out in the French Quarter, walking around somewhat aimlessly down the narrow streets.

Promenade Beach

Piglet wanted to walk along the beach, and so we moved on to Promenade a little later in the day. It was a beautiful, clear day, with thankfully no crowds.

Auroville

We then headed out of the city to make our appointment with Auroville. Even though I have been to Pondicherry several times, I have always been unlucky when it comes to Auroville. Earlier, you had to make a booking in person at Auroville one day before visiting, and since we always made super-short day trips, it was impossible to enter the premises of its main attraction – Matri Mandir. This time, I saw we could make a booking on their website in advance, and so in great excitement, I booked a time slot for us to visit.

This time also, we were unlucky. The skies started to darken, and by the time we reached Auroville, it was pouring heavily. Plus, because of Covid – the interior of Matri Mandir was closed to tourists, and we could only view it from a distance. So, we trudged through mud and rain to once more only view it from a distance.

After this somewhat unsatisfying experience (not getting to go inside/closer to the gold dome was a disappointment), K very sternly told me not to bring him again to Auroville. I kind of agree with him though, going through so much of rigmarole with so little pay off multiple times makes me also want to give up on visiting Auroville again.

And that was the end of our time in Pondicherry. Overall, a bit of a mixed bag. Everybody unanimously agreed that our lunch and time spent in the French Quarter was the best part of our trip. Next time we visit, we decided we will book a night’s stay (in Villa Shanti, which also has lodging) and explore further south instead of just sticking to Pondicherry.