PUDUCHERIE

IN PUDUCHERRY'S FRENCH QUARTER, LIFE TENDS TO BE RATHER SLOW AND LANGUID, BUT THAT'S HALF ITS CHARM

- SHREYA CHEEMA

NOWN AS THE FRENCH RIVIERA OF THE EAST, Puducherry is a walkable archive of its past. Once you make your way through the packed main roads, inching closer to the buzzing Promenade and into the French Quarter, a sudden silence takes over. This silence is of a good kind–one that whispers the secrets of a slow life—of days marked by leisurely strolls, mornings welcomed by the perfectly flaky and buttery croissants, evenings ushered in by the waves of the Bay of Bengal, and nights made bright by candle-light dinners in courtyards of centuries-old French villas.

Two-hundred years of French colonisation have imbued the once humble fishing town and an erstwhile port town the charm and romance the country has been envied for. And while most part of the union territory has shed itself of any proof of that time, the French Quarter or the White Town has survived.

BEING THE FLÂNEUR

The French are passionate "flâneurs." For such a complicated word, it means to wander aimlessly while observing life around. And the French Quarter is the perfect setting to give it your best shot.