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Centuries back, a small fishing village on the Coromandel Coast in southern India located around 160km south of today’s Chennai, evolved as a favourite spot for Europeans to gain entry into the subcontinent. The Romans touched its grounds some 2000 years ago, many centuries later followed by the Portuguese, Dutch, Danes, French and the British. They fought many battles amongst themselves to lay claim to that tiny piece of land of strategic significance. Ultimately in 1673, the French emerged as the winner and made it their colony for almost 300 years. They named the nest ‘Pondicherry’ and soon turned the laid-back coastal parish into a grand seaside port resembling a typical medieval French township. In no time it became the regional epicentre of French politics, commerce and culture, and remained so till 1954 when power was relinquished to India, which achieved independence from the British earlier in 1947.

A touch of the mediterranean

Often referred as the ‘Riviera of the East’, Pondicherry, renamed as ‘Puducherry’ since 2006, stands today as a living monument of France in India, the enduring appeal of which constantly lures tourists from the rest of India and overseas.

Greeted by a Mediterranean