Puducherry
We broke our journey from Mamallapuram to Thanjuvar at the former French colony of Puducherry. There wasn’t an awful lot to see and the afternoon we had to walk around was sufficient to get a feel for the town. Puducherry does not maintain much of a French feel though the policemen still where red kepis and the street names are in both French and Tamil.
Half of the town appeared to be owned by the Aurobindo ashram. The ashram has sufficient funds to purchase and renovate whole streets. One minute we’d be walking along new paving and the next crumbling tarmac.