PONDICHERY

Many a ship sailed out to this destination whose picturesque landscapes and colourful people had been romanticized by the Orientalist painters. These very works of art now adorn the stairway, galleries, and suites of the restored mansion –a veritable walk through the past three centuries.

You can open high glass windows into the internal court or on the street below. You can let your tall louvered blinds play with the tropical sun and wind. Or you can simply blank out the world with the wide teak shutters which turn day to night. Colonial furniture, both amusing and hybrid, fills the high-beamed spaces as you awake in four-poster beds or lounge in remarkable easy chairs which risk-all too often- a mixing of reading with intermittent siestas.

Walk barefoot on cool red or ivory floors. Tread the Savonnerie durries which have been revived on the pit looms of Jaipur, Admire the fine cotton blinds, the chintzes and indiennes, reprinted to original 18th –century designs.

Choose from 14 suites and rooms named after former French comptoirs, loges and factories. Sail the river of time. Flow back to a graceful era when leisure was no idle man’s sin. In the Carte Blanche restaurant, adorned with rare old maps, savour the renowned Creole cuisine, where Tamil spices mix with French restraint, to take your taste buds on the route des indes.

Access:
175 kms from Chennai railway station. 160 kms from Chennai airport, Car pick-up on demand.

EXCURSIONS:
We recommend the following itinerary
Day one: Chennai –Dakshina Chitra- Mahabalipuram-Pondicherry.
Day two: Visit Pondicherry: the houses, the gardens, the churches.
Day three: Excursion to Gangaikondacholapuram and Chidambram
Day four: Morning excursion to Gingy Fort. Afternoon excursion to Auroville and a visit of the Matri Mandir.