Monday 21st
Leaving Fisherman's Cove after breakfast, we drive 3 hours south along the coast to Pondicherry through flat, scrubby farming country. We make a brief stop at Auroville, a settlement founded forty years ago with great ambitions of becoming an ideal, international community of 50,000 souls. In fact, it houses just 1,800 people and is a bizarre combination of a futuristic center for meditation (sorry, 'concentration', and not open to visitors!) and a rather good collection of modern stores for tourists.
The port of Pondicherry was France's territory in Tamil Nadu, and is still known for its French Quarter and tax-free alcohol (elsewhere in the state, the tax on drinks is a frightening 58%). We reach our beach-front hotel, the Promenade, in time for a late lunch, and then visit the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart - an overblown brown-and-white Gothic construction - and walk through the bustling covered market. Our guide shows us how to chew beetle nut, wrapped in these leaves, though we all resist the temptation.
Later on, Mimi and I head off to explore the French Quarter on foot, discovering the more attractive pink-and-cream Notre Dame des Anges, lit up by the late afternoon sun, and some intriguing antique shops. We try (and fail!) to find a bar for an early evening drink, but return to the neighborhood with Adrienne for dinner in the town's best French bistro, Le Dupleix. We eat out in the courtyard of an 18th century mansion which was formerly the residence of the French Governor. Le Dupleix is beautifully restored as a boutique hotel, but sadly few of the old colonial buildings seem as well cared for.
Leaving Fisherman's Cove after breakfast, we drive 3 hours south along the coast to Pondicherry through flat, scrubby farming country. We make a brief stop at Auroville, a settlement founded forty years ago with great ambitions of becoming an ideal, international community of 50,000 souls. In fact, it houses just 1,800 people and is a bizarre combination of a futuristic center for meditation (sorry, 'concentration', and not open to visitors!) and a rather good collection of modern stores for tourists.
The port of Pondicherry was France's territory in Tamil Nadu, and is still known for its French Quarter and tax-free alcohol (elsewhere in the state, the tax on drinks is a frightening 58%). We reach our beach-front hotel, the Promenade, in time for a late lunch, and then visit the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart - an overblown brown-and-white Gothic construction - and walk through the bustling covered market. Our guide shows us how to chew beetle nut, wrapped in these leaves, though we all resist the temptation.
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