I was in Pondicherry for the weekend(Oct 20-21). Actually, the first time I know about this city was when I was in college. Back then, I was almost impossible to go from Thailand to this part of India. I spent 90rupees for the train to get here and my hostel(Maison de Rahda) is just minutes away from the train station. The train left Egmore station at 6.30Am. It takes 4hours to reach the destination. On the way back, the train leaves Pondicherry at 15.35pm, Another remark to be noted is that people cannot book the ticket in advance and this is quite inconvenient. I have to blame the India Railway of its inefficiency on this matter.
Plus, you cannot book the Bus ticket if you do not have an indian cell phone. The government Bus station in Chennai looks scary, and it is dirty everywhere.
In my opinion, the logistic is in bad condition. Tamil Nadu could have much more tourists if the logistic issue is fixed. I noticed the Metro is the gift from the Japanese Government or from the loan from Japan or something.
First, I must say that I wish I could stay longer in Pondicherry. Perhaps, I come again for the Winter workshop at the French institute. Pondicherry is small enough to walk around. As I said that it is small, the cityhall should put the traffic light since people have to right to walk too, not just the car and motobike.
If you ask people if they speak French, some of them do speak decent French. At my hostel, the staff and the owner also speak French. On that day, I saw a group of Thai students coming from Bangalore.
The beach is beautiful and clean. Unfortunately, It is not allowed to swim there which is quite unusual. After 5pm, the beach part becomes walking street.
Grand Bakery on Mission street is quite nice for breakfast(It was really busy in there)
On my last day, I went to Immaculate conception cathedral. It does not look like it was built in late 17th century since it still appear in a good condition