Day 45-47: Pondicherry — IndefinitelyOOO

We’d heard good things about Pondy (how its affectionately known) and my goodness it didn’t disappoint. Being fully paid up Francophiles, to say there was a frisson of excitement as our hire car pulled up outside our hotel in the French Quarter of town would be an understatement (euphemisme then). But it also took a brief changing of gears. The kids leaving the nearby school were speaking French! Pastel painted buildings lined the street where we were to live for the next 4 days and … wait for it (god knows I had) the restaurants menus had whole pages dedicated to wine. They had wine lists. Mon dieu – whole lists of wine.

And that was the story of Pondicherry – a town not of religious temples but of culinary places of worship. I know Jacko will reminisce longingly and with genuine love of the eggs benedict with La Maison Roses’ signature pink Hollandaise he had on our first morning in Pondicherry… I will dream similarly of the rose wine. I hope it doesn’t sound superficial but sometimes, just sometimes wine wins out over thousand year old temples and salty buttered baguettes beat a path, via the stomach, to a woman’s heart.

Side bar: on our way to every new place I recap my research – best bars, do not miss places, restaurants of note to Jacko and he as the keeper of the Google map pins and stars them all ready to navigate our days and nights. In Pondicherry we are proud to say we pretty much made our way through the entire list – quenching my wine thirst and bringing Jack back to his pre Kolkata fighting weight.

Pudicherry. Or Pondicherry. Or just 'Pondy.'

Specifically, French Pondicherry. And oh, it is French. It’s spoken as a first language (along with Tamil), the leafy boulevards are lined with wrought iron railings and lampposts in the European style and the traffic cops are dapper in white uniforms and red kepis. We’re thrilled to find that the cuisine is familiarly French, too. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the varied Indian diet so far but can’t conceal our delight in discovering freely available wine and ham on the menu. Bacon, even!

It’s comfortably warm in this attractive seaside town and we take things pretty easy here, joining locals strolling slowly on the promenade past the Foreign Legion memorials and pavement cafes. Lunches are long and lazy. Despite the tropical temperature and the palm trees, familiar lights and decorations remind us that Christmas is just around the corner. Pondy is a place it’s very easy to become very fond of very quickly and it's fair to say we enjoyed every minute of our time here.