Pondicherry, also known as ‘India’s Little France’ and ‘Paris of the East’ is one of the main tourist attractions in India. It is linked to France because a part of the territory represents the French culture, architecture and cuisine.
The name Pondicherry, locally called Puducherry comes from two Tamil words – “putu” meaning new and “ceri” meaning village.
After our 2019 term exams, we had just got our vacations and two days into it I was already bored staying home. So, I go meet my best friend and we decide on checking a new city out. We end up planning to go to Pondicherry and book our trains for the same week.
I love travelling by trains and the experience of it with your best friends along is unmatchable. Luckily, we found a direct train which is actually pretty rare from Mangalore to Pondi. It took us almost 18 hours of travel but we were way too excited to be bored.
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After a beautiful scenic journey, we reached our destination and here’s when I met @bighungrypanda while trying to figure out where to find a cab. Coincidentally he was a Mangalorean too and we ended up exchanging contacts and I invited him to join us for lunch since he was travelling solo.
Just outside the railway station, we spotted this beautifully constructed basilica called The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We then checked-in at our rooms and really needed to freshen up. We rested for a while and took a cab to Café Des Arts, our brunch spot located in White Town, Pondicherry. @bighungrypanda joined us here and we took a few nice pictures at the place.
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Café Des Arts is one of the well-known cafes in Pondicherry serving French cuisine. Here, we tried
- the Monsieur Croque which were yum but also a little too dry. This was priced at Rs.330 (4.56 USD).
- Spicy Chicken Crepe which I absolutely loved. It was flavorful and prepared well. This was priced Rs.310 (4.28 USD)
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And here’s a picture @bighungrypanda took of me at the café and I loved how it turned out. I was way too skinny back then lol.
Pondicherry has these large auto-rickshaws that are basically pooling but in rickshaws. These are low-cost and the driver charged us just Rs.7 (0.1 USD) each for a distance which would otherwise be more than Rs.150 (2.07 USD).
We travelled to Surcouf Street and were just walking around exploring the place when we found this store selling collections of crafts and traditional pieces of art and graphics. They had some sleekly styled flasks, bags, tees and accessories.
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Our next stop was at Coromandel Café as we were craving for some good desserts. It is located in White Town. This place has a very quaint and green campus with a light pastel colored build.
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We had the Cashew Chocolate Cream Cake – Rs.200 (2.76 USD) and the Crunchy Chocolate Almond Bar – Rs.257 (3.55 USD). They were both decadent and pleasing. Would totally recommend this one.
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Some BTS of me here and the scene every time I am out to eat lol.
That's all for today's post. I will continue our journey in another post soon. So stay tuned.
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