The magnificently-moustachioed policeman politely doffed his kepi as I passed by, just as any of his colleagues might do in a similar French town. In the midday heat I pottered languidly alongside the brightly-coloured bougainvillea on Rue Romain Rolland and the church of Notre Dame des Anges, with the statue of Joan of Arc in the square at the side. All in all, it was rather bizarre to think I was actually in India.
Until 1954, Pondicherry, which is a two and a half hour drive south of Chennai (formerly Madras), was a French colony. Many people just call it Pondy. As well as being a pleasant coastal town to visit in its own right, it received a celebrity boost as the setting for Yann Martel's novel The Life of Pi. When that was made into a film last year director Ang Lee shot many of the opening sequences here too.
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