Pondicherry
- December 20th to 22nd, 2020
A favourite of most Chennaites for a weekend getaway, Pondicherry, also known as Puducherry lies along the Coromandel coast. Tree lined boulevards, Mustard colored Mediterranean styled buildings and bakeries and a nice stretch of promenade running parallel to the Bay of Bengal helps this city retain its distinctive French Legacy.
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How do you reach Pondicherry
A two to three hour drive from Chennai brings one to the French Colonial settlement of Pondicherry. While the capital of the Union Territory of Pondicherry has its own Airport, the poor frequency of flights typically entail most people flying into Chennai or Trichy and choosing the option of driving down.
It can also be reached from Bangalore by road after 6 hours of being on the road. While driving during the day time towards Pondicherry, one can chose to go along the scenic ECR stretch with the Bay of Bengal on one’s left but it would be safer to take the Tindivanam/Villupuram route while approaching the city in the night. The ECR road is very accident prone in the night.
We however had other ideas.
Plans were afoot for a long time to plan out a long ride to Pondicherry on our Cycles and with all the detailing and roles and responsibilities defined, 5 of us set out on 20th of December 2020 at night 10 pm.
Needless to say, we chose the Tindivanam route from the safety perspective. On the night while we were about to leave, my friend’s dog Peppy was all ears, jumping up and down thinking that he was also going to part of the ride since we had a back-up vehicle accompanying us. And before getting into the details of the adventurous night, here is some Trivia on the city.
A little bit on Pondicherry
The Union Territory of Pondicherry shortly known as Pondy was until French Colonial rule until 1954, post which on 1st November, the de facto transfer of the French Indian territories from the French Governance to the Indian Union took place.
The arrival of traders from France, Holland, Portugal and Britain is when the history of Pondy started getting recorded. The French East India Co. set up a trading centre at Pondy in 1674 and this went on to become the chief French settlement in India. The Dutch then captured Pondy during the Nine Years war in 1693 and post a resolution adopted at the Peace of Ryswick, Pondy was handed back to the French in 1699.
The Britishers then laid siege to Pondy and captured it from the French in 1761 but again returned it in 1763 post the Treaty of Paris.
They again exercised control in 1793 at the Siege of Pondicherry amid the wars of the French Revolution and returned it back to France in 1814.
A chequered history of changing nationalities exercising control but the influence of the French has been the maximum on this UT, so much so that even today one gets to see lot of French nationals settled here and setting up shop in the form of running resorts to bakeries to pizza outlets etc.
The weather @ Pondicherry
The weather conditions at Pondicherry are almost similar to Chennai given the proximity of both the cities to the sea. Summer sets in by April and continues till about June. While there are the occasional showers between June till September, the North East monsoon sets in by October and continues till December. While people generally keep visiting this place throughout the year, the ideal months would be between December to March.
Plenty to chose from for stay
Pondicherry has a lot of hotels on the mainland as well as by the beachside. Depending on budgets and activities being sought for, you could choose your pick. A few names which come to mind are Le Pondy/The Promenade/Lagoon Sarovar Premiere Resort/Bonheur Ocean Spray/Maison Perumal/ Palais de Mahe/La Tamara/Annamalai/Residency Towers/Le Dupleix and many more.
The long and short of the ride
At around the 25th km, and with darkness all around, missed seeing a big pothole on the left side of the road and bang went my cycle into it. Could sense that I would be falling badly and to minimize the impact, landed on my fours. The gloves saved me from too much of bruises but the knees of both the legs took some beating. Fortunately the cycle held up well and save for a small bend in the handle, there were no other issues.
I luckily had a couple of riders who were riding a little behind me and help was around almost immediately to get me back on my feet. Having washed the injured areas with water, we rode on till SRM college where we had decided to have a bite and got my wounds cleaned up. Had a choice between putting the cycle into the rear side of the car and hopping on to the seat next to the driver or pedalling on. Decided on going ahead with the ride and post a little bit of rest and stretching, we set off.
Photo shoots galore throughout the route and we finally reached the city of Pondicherry by around 7.45 AM. Post the fall, the ride was mostly uneventful but we kept riding in a single file and took requisite breaks for coffee/tea enroute. The Plan was to do a few additional loops from wherever our hotel was to reach our goal of completing 175 kms. We were starved and headed for breakfast to Hotel Suguru and then set off to resume our ride towards the hotel where we were booked.
We had booked ourselves at Mermaid Island Beach Resorts, a nice property on the stretch from East Coat Road and leading to Pondicherry and pretty close to the Pondicherry University.
A couple of riders were kicked up about wanting to do 200 kms and they rode on the ECR stretch for some more distance before joining us at the hotel.
A weekend getaway for many, Pondy is a favorite tourist destination with its churches, beaches, temples and statues. A good way to see most of the places is by walk as most tourist attractions are within a distance of 2-3 kms of each other. The city preserves much of the colonial ambiance with its French style avenues in the old part of the town with its Mediterranean styled colonial buildings.
The Promenade beach
Close to the White Town area lies the Promenade beach, also known as the Rocky beach with a nice walkaway stretching to almost a couple of kms lined on one side by quirky cafés, colonial buildings, a war memorial, the Dupleix Park and a statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
On account of the coastal erosion being very high, rocks have been stacked across this entire stretch and hence the beach is not accessible to the common public.
There is an old lighthouse opposite the Gandhi statue which was erected atop a rectangular platform in the year 1836, built to a height of 29 metres and at a cost of 10,000 francs.
This now continues to function only as a museum while a new lighthouse has been erected in Dubrayapet by the Indian Government and is functioning since 1979.
Pondicherry has a number of good beach resorts like The Dunes, Le Pondy, St. James Court etc which have their own private beaches and are pretty well maintained. To access any of the city’s publicly accessible beaches like the Serenity beach or the Paradise beach (accessible through a ferry ride from the Chunnambar boat house on the Cuddalore road), people would have to travel a little further outside the city.
Adjacent to the lighthouse lies the Sacred Heart Basilica, one amongst the 21 Basilicas in India, built by the French. Designed in Gothic architecture, the church houses life size glass paintings of the 28 saints of the church and other paintings on the life of Jesus. Also on display on the promenade are statues of Victor Schoelcher, a French writer, journalist and politician and Marquis Dupleix who succeeded Pierre Benoit Dumas as Governor General of Pondicherry.
The Aurobindo Ashram
Located on Rue De La Marine, this Ashram was founded by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, a renowned spiritual philosopher and freedom fighter in 1926 and is easily the most popular tourist attraction. A place where one can visit to seek peace and tranquility, the ashram has the mausoleums of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa or the Mother in the courtyard. She was his spiritual collaborator and while Aurobindo, post quitting politics spent most of his time in the Ashram between 1910 to 1920 writing and meditating, the Mother joined him in 1920.
Auroville
Also known as the City of Dawn, this township was the brainchild of Mother and is built towards the Northern part of Pondicherry.
The objective towards creating this place was to encourage people from all across the world, irrespective of their caste, race, creed or nationality could live together in peace and harmony.
The centre of Auroville has a huge golden colored Globe, also known as the Matri Mandir, symbolizing the Universal Mother.
A prime spot for yoga and meditation, this is open between 9 AM to 5.30 PM and tickets are to be booked online in advance.
Eglise De Notre Dame Des Anges
This is one of the oldest churches in the White Town area built in the 18th century. This magnificent church, also known the Church of Our Lady of Angels is an architectural feat, resembling the Basilica at Lourdes in France. A towering statue of Mother Mary holding baby Jesus can be seen here apart from a statue of the Joan of Arc. The city’s only mass is held in this church. This church remains open from 7 AM in the morning to 6.30 PM.
Arulmigu Manakula Vinayaga Temple
A Hindu temple which houses Lord Ganesha was said to be in existence before the French came and settled here before 1666. The interiors of the temple have paintings of the Lord, depicting various events of Hindu Mythology while the exteriors of the temple are crafted with stucco figurines. The idol rests on a Golden Chariot weighing around 7.5 kgs.
Sadly the temple elephant Lakshmi which used to greet visitors at the entrance and bless them, all for a small fee of food in the form of bananas or money for the mahout passed away in November 2022.
Located close to the temple, is a flea market where one can indulge in some bargain shopping for decorative lamps, scented candles, dresses and artefacts. If one would be wanting to savour some good vegetarian South Indian food, Hotel Suguru, Adyar Ananda Bhavan and Hotel Jayaram are the most popular ones but should u wanting to experiment on some French, Italian and English cuisines, Pondicherry is the place to be.
Some of the best cafes can be found here where one gets spoilt for choices in settling for beachfront cafes to open air breezy eateries to garden lounges. Delicacies like Apple Tart, Cheese Cakes Ratatouille, Waffles, banana Nutella Crepes, Croissants, Coffee Macchiato are available across most joints. And if the stomach still desires, don’t miss Tanto which dishes up some of the best pizzas in Pondy.
The driver left for Chennai the same morning after we reached Pondicherry on our cycles. We had planned our return in the SUV rather than attempt an encore. After checking into the Mermaid Resort, we went around for a bit of sightseeing. Night was again at the resort and post breakfast the next day, we headed back to Chennai, carrying some lovely memories of our group ride.
Good elaborate description of places in and around Chennai helps one not only to plan a tour appropriately but also educates about what is best in them superb keep writing and educating !!!!!!
What a great service you have done in giving us a virtual tour of Pondy. I have never been there but your detail write up took me through the city…Hum Paanch 👏👏👏👏