Top choice in Puducherry (Pondicherry)
Occupying a 100-year-old building revamped by two French architects, Villa Shanti puts an exquisitely contemporary twist on the French Quarter heritage hotel. Beautiful modern rooms combine superchic design with typically Tamil materials and colonial-style elegance: four-poster beds, Chettinadu tiles, walk-through bathrooms, Tamil-language murals. The sunken courtyard houses a hugely popular restaurant and bar.
The owners are also behind uberchic top-end La Villa.
0.17 MILES
Pondy is a seaside town, but that doesn’t make it a beach destination; the city’s sand is a thin strip of dirty brown that slurps into a seawall of jagged…
0.48 MILES
Founded in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo and a French-born woman, ‘the Mother’, this famous spiritual community has about 2000 members in its many departments…
5.53 MILES
To some, the large, golden, almost spherical Matrimandir (Auroville's focal point), set amid red (cement) lotus petals and surrounded by pristine green…
0.34 MILES
Goodness knows how this converted late-18th-century villa keeps its artefacts from disintegrating, considering there’s a whole floor of French-era…
Institut Français de Pondichéry
0.53 MILES
This grand 19th-century neoclassical building is also a flourishing research institution devoted to Indian culture, history and ecology. Visitors can…
0.42 MILES
Pondy may have more churches than most Indian towns, but the Hindu faith still reigns supreme. Pilgrims, tourists and the curious get a head pat from the…
0.09 MILES
Looking out to sea, past a statue of Joan of Arc (opposite), Notre Dame des Anges was completed in 1855, and is arguably Pondy's most attractive church…
École Française d'Extrême-Orient
0.2 MILES
This handsome heritage building and library is home to over 11,000 Indology books and a series of Sanskrit, Tamil and Manipravalam palm-leaf manuscripts…
0.09 MILES
Looking out to sea, past a statue of Joan of Arc (opposite), Notre Dame des Anges was completed in 1855, and is arguably Pondy's most attractive church…
0.17 MILES
Pondy is a seaside town, but that doesn’t make it a beach destination; the city’s sand is a thin strip of dirty brown that slurps into a seawall of jagged…
3. École Française d'Extrême-Orient
0.2 MILES
This handsome heritage building and library is home to over 11,000 Indology books and a series of Sanskrit, Tamil and Manipravalam palm-leaf manuscripts…
0.25 MILES
A shady green haven that's always busy, Bharathi Park faces the neoclassical governor's residence, Raj Nivas, on its north side.
0.28 MILES
The main sight along seafront Goubert Ave is this bronze striding statue of Gandhi.
0.28 MILES
Pondy's lighthouse was completed in the 1830s and functioned for more than a century before being replaced in 1979.
7. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral
0.32 MILES
Begun in 1779 but not completed until 1791, this splendid Jesuit church (in whites, blues and yellows) is reminiscent of Goa's Portuguese-style churches,…
0.34 MILES
Goodness knows how this converted late-18th-century villa keeps its artefacts from disintegrating, considering there’s a whole floor of French-era…