2 to 3 hours
Walking the White Town
A self-guided walk through the French Quarter: colonial streets, heritage buildings, temples, and the seafront promenade. The best two hours you will spend in Pondicherry.
The French Quarter of Pondicherry is one of the few places in India where you can walk down a street of colonial buildings with their original names still on the signs: Rue Dupleix, Rue Bussy, Rue de la Bourdonnais. The street grid was designed in the 1690s and has not changed since. The names survived decolonisation intact in 1962. Every name on the grid is a chapter in the story of French India.
Where to start
Begin at the Romain Rolland Library on the main cross-street of the French Quarter. The library was founded in 1827 and renamed in 1966 for the French Nobel laureate who corresponded with Gandhi. It is one of the oldest public libraries in India and a quiet way to enter the neighbourhood.
The streets
Walk south down Rue Romain Rolland toward the seafront. Turn onto Rue Dupleix and walk its length: the buildings here are among the best-preserved in the White Town, with painted facades, shuttered windows, and bougainvillea over the balconies. This is the street the Instagram photographs come from.
At the eastern end of Rue Dupleix, you reach Goubert Avenue and the seafront. Walk north along the promenade toward the Gandhi statue (13 feet of bronze on eight monolithic granite pillars from Gingee Fort, unveiled Republic Day 1965) and the War Memorial (1938), where the names of Pondicherry's dead from two world wars are recorded in stone.
The temple
Turn west from the promenade down any of the cross-streets and you will find the Manakula Vinayagar Temple in the middle of the grid. Over 800 years old and dedicated to Ganesh, it is an extraordinary contrast to the colonial architecture around it: painted towers, gold pillars, marble floors, and a constant flow of worshippers. Entry is free; shoes must be left at the entrance.
The promenade
Return to Goubert Avenue at the end of the walk. Le Café, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram's beachfront café, is the right place to sit with a coffee and watch the light change on the water. The Bay of Bengal faces east: sunrises here are worth the early alarm.
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