The holiday was planned 6 months in advance. It was planned
by my cousins as a surprise to the rest of us. The destination was kept a
secret until 2 days before the date of travel. Since I had a wedding to attend
on the same dates, I joined them 1.5 days later and so my exploration was
incomplete. Hence I bring to you- The Incomplete French Connection.
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| The streets of Pondicherry. |
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| Chennai-Pondicherry Highway |
We reached Pondicherry at 11:15 pm. Our stay was arranged at Le Château. The rooms were quite spacious, royal and well maintained.
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| Le Château |
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| Inside Le Château |
ALERT :- Everything, I repeat, EVERYTHING shuts down by 11:00pm (max) so make sure
you order your dinner & drinks before the entire town shuts down.
Since we reached late, we found one small restaurant which was willing to
serve us dinner. We ordered for chicken noodles and pepper chicken as those 2
dishes were the best of the few options we had. Tired of all the travel and food hunting we dozed off.
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| Rooms at Le Château |
Next day we woke up early and had French breakfast at the hotel. The
buffet spread consisted of Fresh fruit juices, cereals, cut fruits, croissants,
cinnamon roll, strawberry cake, baked beans, sandwiches chicken sausages and
omelette fried in different styles. I have never eaten softer breads. They
would just melt in the mouth, both, the croissants and the cinnamon roll.
Post breakfast we thronged to the Eglise De Notre Dame Des Anges church
for Sunday mass. Eglise De Notre Dame Des Anges means the Church of Our Lady of
Angels and indeed it looked like the angels themselves came down to build the church. It is
more beautiful than any church I have ever seen. The church had a beautiful
ceiling with flower patterns embossed and painted in light-yet-vibrant colours
of yellow blue and pink.
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| Eglise De Notre Dame Des Anges |
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| Eglise De Notre Dame Des Anges in the night |
Soon after mass we visited the Immaculate Conception Cathedral which has
beautiful statues of Mother Mary and Jesus.
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| Immaculate Conception Cathedral |
Our next stop was yet another
church which stunned all of us with its astonishing beauty-Basilica of The Sacred heart of Jesus. The church has iron gates and is called the door of
Mercy which was put up by Pope Benedict XVI.
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| Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. |
It is believed that whosoever
crosses the gate with repentance and prays with all their heart is forgiven off
their sins. The church has some astounding glass paintings all over.
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| This is what you see when you enter the door of Mercy! Beautiful, Isn't it? |
After overwhelming ourselves with religious sentiments we made our way to
paradise beach. There is apparently an island till where a boat takes you. But
since the average age of our group was on the higher side we had to take a dip
in the sea away from the island. The beach is surprisingly clean (at least cleaner
than the beaches of Goa). After frolicking for a while at the beach we went
back to our hotel and hydrated ourselves with chilled beer ;) .
Next, we went on an eating spree. First we had lunch at Palais de Mahé. Appams,
a very piquant chicken curry, scrumptious Fish curry with boiled brown rice and
extremely moreish organic penne with spicy tomato and chicken.
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| Lunch at Palais de Mahé |
Though we were
not full, we wrapped up lunch for the better part- desserts at Zuka. Zuka is a
tiny place with the very very inviting desserts. Everything we ordered was very
palatable. Our order consisted of- apple pie, moksha, MasterChef, Watsons,
caramel tart and many more whose names I don’t remember. Moksha literally takes
you to another world for a while and their caramel tart is the best! They’re
really small though :P
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| ZUKA!!! |
We, 20 people swamped Zuka then proceeded to swamp Gelato Factory which
was right beside Zuka. I personally was not satisfied with Gelato Factory.
Their best flavour was Ferrero Rocher.
One of our friends told us that Pondicherry has amazing leather stuff to
shop for. And so we decided to go shopping. It turned out to be a bad idea. Why
you ask?
1)
The street is called Nehru Street and is full
of road side vendors.
2)
There is only one Shop that we could spot
that sold leather items.
3)
That shop was closed.
4)
There is one shop by the name- La boutique de
auroville which has cute stuff.
5)
If you are lucky enough you will find cheap stuff
that fits you. (I either liked apparels that were too expensive or that
wouldn’t fit me :D ).
Post shopping we were too tired to go out for dinner. We pronounced that
we would get dinner from outside and have it at our rooms. We ordered for
starters at our hotel- nawabi kababs and crispy fried lamb. The crispy fried
lamb was crispy crumbly and crunchy and tasted fantastic.
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| The ambience at Palais de Mahé |
We bought lots of
delicacies from Bakers street. Chicken, Ham-pita bread sandwiches, Chicken
sandwiches, ham & cheese sandwiches, Sausage croissants, and sausage and
ham pizza is what had for dinner. My favorite out of the dinner menu was
Sausage croissants and ham & cheese sandwich. When we had nothing left to
eat, we tucked ourselves in bed and had a good nights sleep.
The following day we woke up at 5:45 am and decided to go for a walk.
Luckily for us, Rock Beach as it is popularly known or Seaside Promenade was
right behind our hotel. The name says it- there is a promenade by the sea.
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| Me sitting at the sea side promenade! |
The beach is full of rocks, which makes it unsuitable for a plunge in the
water. But the peaceful atmosphere and its panoramic splendour does make up for this. A few pictures are
not sufficient to see the breath-taking view it offers. Go there and see it for
yourselves.
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| Rock Beach/ Sea side Promenade! |
Soon after, we proceeded to have breakfast and then made our way to the
exit.
There are many more things to do, many more things to see and many more places to visit in
Pondicherry, but my tour was incomplete. The vivid memories of the bright,
colourful and vibrant streets of Pondicherry is sure to pull us back some day.
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| The vibrant roads of Pondicherry is what I love! |
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