Sri Aurobindo Ashram is one of the most popular with Westerners

Next day we left around 9:00 although the agenda had said we were to leave 6:30 a.m. We drove three hours to Pondicherry. We were once again delighted to have good roads to travel on: they were recently paved, had shoulder most of the way and even had four lanes for a while. Pondicherry has a lovely colonial French section of town, where we stayed in a wonderful colonial inn. It was stucco with colored concrete floors. My favorite part was the bathrooms with pedestal sinks and color washed walls. The shower had little arched alcoves for your shampoo, etc. This is a much simpler accommodation so it cost around $40. a night.

Pondicherry came under French rule in the mid-18th century and was finally returned to India 1954. A canal originally divided the town. On one side was Ville Blanche (that would be French for white) and the other side was (you guessed it) Ville Noir (black) for the Indian population. Let me just say, there is a distinct difference between the two sides. The streets of the old French area are cobbled and the waterfront was designed to resemble Nice. I am not sure what it looked like before the tsunami but now there is a pretty ugly seawall of large stones.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded in 1926 and it is one of the most popular with Westerners and is the most affluent. There are many businesses in Pondicherry with their name: travel agency, jewelry shop, bookstore, clothing and craft stores, etc. The Aurobindo group, the Alliance Française and other bodies undertook an extensive restoration of the French quarter a number of years ago. Many houses and institutions in the streets between the waterfront and the canal are now very chic and gentrified, the gardens blooming with flowering trees and bougainvillea. The overall impression is one of gleaming whitewashed residences and a concern for maintaining high standards that you don’t find in most of India.

It was a wee bit oxymoronic to sit in our outdoor dining area at the hotel, with its thatched roof, feeling like you were in France, although we were in southern India and hearing waiters speak French and the radio playing country and western music from a US satellite radio station in Nashville! posted by Ron & Tricia @ 8:37 PM