Pondicherry

The sea is the first thing you meet in Pondicherry, but it is not a swimming town. The Promenade along the French Quarter faces a wall of boulders, and people walk the sea air there rather than going into the water. For sand you head out: Serenity Beach and the Auroville shore to the north are a short scooter ride away, and Paradise Beach to the south is reached by boat through the Chunnambar backwaters.

The water is warm, around 28°C for much of the year, but the Bay of Bengal surf is strong and currents are dangerous, so swimming means staying in the shallows near lifeguards or not at all. Beach life is about wading, sunsets and fried fish rather than long days lying on the sand, and modest dress is the norm on local beaches.

Pondicherry eats in two languages. In the Tamil Quarter and around Goubert Market the food is South Indian: banana-leaf meals, dosas and idlis for breakfast, filter coffee, and seafood curries from the fishing villages along the coast. The French legacy shows in bakeries, crêpes and the Creole cooking of old Franco-Tamil families, where French technique meets tamarind, coconut and local spice.

The French Quarter has courtyard cafés and restaurants in colonial houses, good for slow lunches, and the territory's lower tax on alcohol makes beer and wine easy to come by, unusual for this part of India. Auroville adds bakeries and farm-to-table cooking. The scene is charming rather than deep: a few days covers it well.

The pleasure is the townscape. The French Quarter, between the canal and the sea, is a grid of quiet streets lined with ochre and white colonial villas, bougainvillea and tall shuttered windows. Across the canal, the Tamil Quarter keeps its own houses with verandas and carved wooden pillars, and walking the two side by side is the main sight.

Landmarks are modest but varied: the neo-Gothic Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the Manakula Vinayagar temple with its temple elephant, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram where visitors file past the flower-covered samadhi in silence, and a small museum with Roman-era finds from nearby Arikamedu. The golden globe of Auroville's Matrimandir lies just outside town. Two or three days is enough.

Evenings in Pondicherry are gentle. The most popular night-time activity is strolling the Promenade once it closes to traffic in the evening, followed by a long dinner. Because alcohol is cheaper here than in the rest of Tamil Nadu, there are more bars than you might expect: rooftop lounges in the French Quarter, hotel bars and a few beach shacks out towards Serenity Beach, with weekend crowds driving down from Chennai and Bangalore.

But it closes early, and there is no club scene to speak of. Expect a drink with sea air and a quiet walk back, not a late night.

The country around Pondicherry is a flat, hot coastal plain, and the outdoors is low-key. The sea is the main playground: surf schools work the breaks at Serenity Beach, and there is scuba diving on offshore reefs and wrecks. Boats run through the Chunnambar backwaters, and Ousteri Lake, on the edge of town, draws flamingos, pelicans and herons in winter.

Auroville's replanted tropical dry forest gives shaded tracks for cycling and walking, and the Pichavaram mangroves, about two hours south, are good for rowing through the channels. There are no hills or real hiking. The best season runs from December to February; summer heat and the autumn monsoon limit time outside.

Pondicherry sits in the heart of Tamil temple country, and the outings are rich. Mahabalipuram, about two hours up the coast road, has the UNESCO-listed Shore Temple, the Five Rathas and great carved rock reliefs from the Pallava era. Chidambaram, about an hour and a half south, has the vast Nataraja temple dedicated to dancing Shiva, still full of daily ritual.

Inland, Gingee Fort spreads its walls across three granite hills, and Tiruvannamalai, about two hours away, is a pilgrimage town around the huge Arunachaleswarar temple. Auroville, the experimental township with its Matrimandir, is close enough for a half day. Travel is by car or driver on busy roads, which makes each trip a full day.

Pondicherry is easy-going with children in a small way. The French Quarter is quiet and shaded, the Promenade closes to traffic in the evening so children can run along the seafront, and a boat ride to Paradise Beach or a cycle around Auroville makes a good outing. The Botanical Garden has a little toy train.

There is little else made for children, though: no zoo or aquarium of note, and the strong surf means beach time is paddling under close watch. Heat is the main difficulty for most of the year, and traffic outside the French Quarter is chaotic. It suits families with older children who enjoy a slow pace.

The historic centre is small and flat, and the French Quarter is one of the most pleasant places in South India to walk, with quiet streets and little traffic. Hired bicycles cover the old town and the Promenade easily.

Beyond that, things spread out. There is no rail transit, and local buses are crowded and hard for visitors to use, so the beaches, Auroville and the lake mean auto-rickshaws, taxis booked by app, or a hired scooter, which many visitors use. Traffic outside the centre is heavy and the roads are rough on two wheels, and day trips need a car with a driver.

Shopping here is about crafts and well-made small things. The French Quarter streets hold boutiques selling block-printed cotton, linen clothing, leather sandals and homeware in an easy Indo-French style, and the Ashram's own workshops produce handmade paper, incense and essential oils. Auroville's craft outlets add pottery, natural soaps and textiles.

For something more local, Goubert Market and the streets around Nehru Street sell fruit, flowers, fabric and household goods. There are no luxury streets or big department stores, but for a bag of thoughtful gifts it is a good stop.

Pondicherry is very cheap for most visitors. Meals in South Indian canteens, filter coffee, auto-rickshaws, scooter hire and entry to the main sights cost very little, and guesthouses near the Ashram are simple and inexpensive. Drinks are cheaper than in neighbouring states.

The French Quarter is where costs rise: restored colonial mansions run as boutique hotels and European-style cafés are priced for visitors, and rooms fill up and get dearer at weekends and over the winter season. Staying across the canal in the Tamil Quarter or near the beaches keeps a stay inexpensive.

There is no regular programme of theatre, concerts or live music. What a visitor can find is occasional: Bharatanatyam recitals and Carnatic music concerts, events at the long-established French cultural centre, and performances and community concerts in Auroville's halls. Temple festivals bring nadaswaram pipes and drums into the streets on their own calendar. It is worth asking locally, but this is not a town to choose for its stage.

Many people come to Pondicherry to slow down, and the town is built for it. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram sets a quiet tone in the French Quarter, with meditation in its courtyard open to visitors, and Auroville, just north, has a wide spread of yoga classes, meditation, breathwork, bodywork and holistic therapies, plus guesthouses set in forest. Ayurvedic massage and treatment centres are common, and yoga schools run courses of a few days or several weeks.

There is no bathing culture of its own and the spas are mostly small centres or hotel-based. The calm comes from shaded streets, early mornings on the Promenade and long afternoons indoors out of the heat.