India

Pondicherry

With its storybook-sounding name and heady mélange of Franco-Tamil heritage, Pondicherry (officially Puducherry) was always going to have a lot to live up to. Luckily, it does.

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The French ruled ‘Pondy’ for around 300 years, and their legacy is everywhere, from its Gallic-sounding street names to its pâtisseries and white-capped gendarmes. Most of all it’s in the architecture: 18th century French townhouses in saffron and turquoise; churches in pastel-pink and deep crimson; white colonnades and ornate balconies looking out over cobblestone streets now filled with jasmine sellers, honking tuk-tuks, and the occasional smartphone-wielding influencer. Outside the French Quarter, the Tamil city is more typical of a South Indian town: crammed with food stalls, shops and buzzing mopeds.

The mix of tropical seaside atmosphere and old-world colonial elegance is Pondicherry’s main draw, but there’s more to this city than sipping café-au-lait in bougainvillea-scented courtyards. As the home of India’s most famous ashram, Auroville, Pondy has a unique spiritual story. Even if you don’t make the trip out to meditate inside the golden orb at the heart of this experimental community (yes, there’s a lot to unpick there) – the live-and-let-life philosophy of Auroville permeates the entire life and mindset of Pondicherry.

What all of this adds up to is one very, very charming city. Wander along the breezy promenade, past the resurrected statue of Gandhi, watching fishermen mending nets on the beach – perhaps to the sound of a brass band. Go antique shopping and boutique-hopping beneath the palm trees in the French Quarter. Wander into a Catholic church to see Mary in a sari, or into a Ganesha Temple dedicated to Auroville’s founder, ‘The Mother’. So many religions and ways of life have become intertwined in tiny Pondy, you never know what you’ll find around the next corner.

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Chettinad

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Kumbakonam

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