Oh so French, Pondicherry

This week I did a 2-day photo tour to Pondicherry (Puducherry), and I truly loved the place. The food, the architecture and everything in the air was just so French!

I was invited by an ex-colleague who is also a pro photographer for a photo tour to Pondi with his friends. I am so glad I could make it at such short notice.

My first shot at 5:30am, upon arrival at Pondi:

I hopped on a bus from Bangalore to Pondicherry that I booked on redbus (both ways). All buses were running only overnight and the journey was 7 hours one way; so I did 2 nights in the bus travelling to and fro, 1 night and 2 full days in Pondi.

Day 1: Roaming around in Pondicherry

The Sun is pretty harsh. Don't forget to carry sunglasses, sunblock and hat for the day and a mosquito repellent for the night.

Ruins of a palace hotel

Lighthouse

I have been to Kolkata and Chennai...but was still so excited to be on the east coast:

We had the perfect french breakfast: mushroom and corn crepe with mashed potatoes and cheese...i could so eat this every day:

at this place the indian kaffe express (address: 3, rue dumas street, near it office, white town, puducherry).

Some of us stayed at the house of a friend (it was walking distance from the promenade), very loving and caring hosts. This is the view from the balcony of their house:

Since I got here by public transport we had to hire a two wheeler! it was just so convenient and fast to get around places. gps (google maps) worked very well all around Pondi.

Auroville/ sri aurobindo ashram:

we could not get inside the mahtrimadir (meditation hall) - for visitors access there are passes, but these only get you in on day 2 from it's issue (we got this information from a resident there).

around the property:

yeah that's right...what you see here is a couch hanging off the trees

Dinner was delicious at la plancha (address: 56/A, rue roman rolland french quaters, white town, puducherry). The ambience is soothing with yellow lights on the roof top. they also have movies running on a big screen every wednesday :).

you have to try the burger's with the yummiest-warm-perfectly-cooked veggies on the side:

Day 2:

I am addicted to morning tea; on day 2 I slept through the sunrise (missed catching the rising sun on the east coast) but went zipping through the streets on the bike looking for a local tea stall, i found that all these will say coffee but if you ask they may have tea too. The one where I got my tea and samosa were both tasting exactly like they do at popular eat outs back home in Pune, which charged me up for the rest of the day