Not the kind of blog I ever write. But there should always be a first time. I decided to finish writing while I was in Pondicherry. Otherwise once I get back home and life takes over, time to write is difficult to find. Our next stop is Auroville. We will be there for the next 3 days and then a day in Mahabalipuram before we head home and back to school for 7 weeks.
Before coming to Pondicherry, I asked a few people for their recommendations and although I had long lists, I basically ended up doing and going to the places I was interested in. Pondicherry had been on my bucket list for a very long time. Frankly, it’s ticked off. Would I come back again? No. Unless I specifically fall in love with a place – I avoid coming back. There is too much to see in this world to repeat a place.
This blog is going to be a review of all the places we visited and ate at. My recommendations and thoughts. This may seem like the post by a person who eats and only eats but frankly, Pondicherry seems to have developed a cafe culture and I like to eat so it was perfect! Run in the morning, eat all day! This may be helpful to any of you planning a trip there.
Road trip.
Chennai to Pondicherry : We landed at 1:15pm at the airport and by the time I found our car and driver it was 1:40pm. I told the driver to take the ECR (East Coast Route) but he said the highway would be better. For lack of better knowledge I asked him to do what he thought was better. 1 hour later we will still in the outskirts of Chennai. Veera was hungry so we stopped in a restaurant. It took us about 45 mins to finish lunch. Once I got in the car, I put on my map and clearly visible was the ECR route which was cleaner than the highway but still showed 2h 30 mins to reach! We hit the ECR route after taking some inner lanes to avoid the traffic on the alternate route.
My driver needed coffee very soon after so we had another 20 mins coffee break. The road on the east coast is mostly two lanes but people drive very fast. So basically, we reached Pondicherry at 6:45pm! Yep a whole day of travel. Well, maybe had we taken the ECR from the beginning we would have reached Pondicherry by 5:30pm.
Stay
We stayed in the Petit Palais on Rue Suffren.
Now Rue Suffren is like the street with everything! Walk straight down and you would hit the main park – Bharathi Park. Along all sides of the road are buildings and villas : beautiful old colonial architecture, some preserved, some dilapidated and some turned into the many cafés that dot the streets of Pondicherry’s French quarter. Some of the entrances are actually picturesque with bougainvillea’s hanging across the doorways. I particularly liked the facade and the arches of the doorways.
Most of the places to stay are actually villas converted into hotels. The ones we visited and liked included – Palais De Mahe, le Villa, villa Shanti and more.
Food – Some of the cafés are very very popular . Wait for 30-45 mins is normal.
Cafe Villa Shanti – 3/5 – beautiful ambience, outdoor seating. We ordered a pesto pasta and a prawns with pumpkin sauce. But note, on weekends and holidays the place will make you wait for 30-40 mins
Cafe Des Arts – attempt 1 – long line – didn’t want to wait for lunch.
Cafe Des Arts (Cafe De Arh) – Oh my – 6/5 – attempt 2. The cafe opens at 9am. We were outside at 8:45am. It opened at 9:10am. We ordered bacon and cheese omelette, crepe with apple sauce and crepe with berry sauce. The food was to die for and the cold coffee – one of the best I’ve ever had!!
Coromandel cafe – attempt 1 – long wait – 45 mins so we decided to pack their popular deserts for after lunch. We packed the apple crumble, banoffee cheese cake, salted caramel brownie. Yes, gluttony!
Attempt 2 – we just ate desert in the waiting area – this time we tried – burnt cheese cake and apple crumble
Attempt 3 packed some deserts – Nutella cookie fudge, lemon meringue pie and carrot cake. Too much sugar!!
Attempt 4 – 5 / 5 for their deserts. This was the last cafe we visited before leaving Pondicherry. I think with the long weekend rush gone, the town felt normal. We actually got a place to eat.
Le Jardin Suffren 4/5 – came to this quaint little place in search of lunch. Right opposite our hotel. Aptly named the garden cafe. Quiet. No waiting. We ate a chicken club sandwich and fish and chips as well as tomato basil bruschetta.
Palais De Mahe rooftop restaurant – Les Alizes- 5/5 – we loved the ambience, the rooftop feel, the great location and enjoyed the mushroom, onion risotto with parpadelle. The food was very good and not a lot of people.
The 2nd visit – seafood platter and mango prawn curry. Both amazing. We had to take Vijay for dinner so both of us agreed that this would be the better choice.
Le Dupleix – 2/5 – overpriced and overhyped. For tandoori prawns, ravioli and 2 beers each, we paid an awful amount of money. The ambience and the verandah are beautifully done but I wouldn’t eat here again.
Villa Helena – 2/5 – we went there for the recommended New York cheesecake but nothing extraordinary at all. Again, the building is old and the architecture stunning.
Surguru – 3/5 – enjoyed South Indian thali lunch. This was a local joint and only served vegetarian food but finger licking good. We came here for lunch straight after the beach and were ravenous so no picture.
Mira cafe – Grand Hotel De Europe – 3/5 – we ate salad, a vegan bowl and Veera ate a pasta.
To see and do
Botanical gardens – 3/5 – we visited the aquarium which had lots of different kinds of fish, walked around the lotus pond and took pictures on the bridge. We looked for the Buddha garden which is not in a very good shape. We loved walking amongst the banyan trees. Of course I was with my 8 year old so stopping by the playground and swings was a must!
Rock beach – 4/5 – only because my daughter loved it! The pier was closed due to renovation. Very popular beach but I have to say the pictures make it look better than it is. There is a lot of garbage and plastic strewn all along the beach which is heart breaking. Obviously, I didn’t click those parts.
Notre Dame De Anges Church – 4/5 – must visit for the French service.
The Sacred Heart Basilica and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral – 2 / 5 were both visited but the grandeur of cathedrals in Europe was missing. Veera was interested to know more so at least the visit has got her excited to learn.
Aurobindo ashram – 5/5 for the peace and tranquility. The manicured gardens and the Shanti is lovely.
Museum of Pondicherry – 3/5 – could be visited but again dilapidated building, poor facility, artefacts could have been displayed better, facilities to make things interactive or just more interesting would be so much better but the ticket was 15 INR for the two of us. How can things improve?
Eden beach – 4/5 – we wanted to go to paradise beach but it was closed on Diwali day so we decided to go to Eden beach instead.
Lovely sandy white beach but the beaches in this part of the world are unlike what I have known. No shacks, no beach chairs, mostly fully clothed people. You get in and you stay in the water, you only get out once you’re done. That’s the only tough part, there is no place to just lounge around and hang about. There are changing areas and shower spaces.
Paradise beach – 4/5 – 2 ways to get here. Reach the Chunnambar boat house to hire a boat and get to the beach or drive all the way to the beach. There are two sections – private and government. Once you reach one side, you can’t cross over. Some govt rule. It’s a return ticket by boat- approx 350 per person.
The beach is beautiful but there is no concept of places to relax. We carried a towel to sun bathe but it was too hot to not be in the water. We were in the water enjoying the waves for about 2 hours and once the sun became too strong, decided to get out and change.
If you walk along the promenade which is 1.7 kms long you would see a number of monuments and statues – war memorial, Gandhi’s statue, Joan of Arc’s park.
Pondicherry : worth a visit to see what all the hype is about. But I know from what I discovered in my many walks that Pondicherry would have been a place to visit 10 years ago and must have a been special but now with cafés, bars and restaurants everywhere, noise, pollution, stinky drains and canals, and garbage, we have already or have nearly begun to destroy this heritage city with a rich, colonial and historical past.
Sneh Wadhwaney 
Very nicely done baby 🙂
Sent from my iPhone
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