Pondicherry was a french colony till 52 and you can still get the taste of French culture here.
The most striking things is the town planning. The city is like a circle, four curved roads in the boundary, called as East Bulewar, West Bulewar, North Bulewar and South Bulewar.
All the roads inside this boundaries are parrallel and perpendicular. If you see it from the top, it is like a cake cut into small pieces. The infrastructure in the city is so good that, in the many years I have stayed there, I have not seen watter logging in the city, even during the heaviest of rains.
The roads have french name till one canal, and then the same roads continue with indian name. The french architecture is still maintained in the part of the city closer to the beach.
Travel:
The easiest way to reach pondy is through bus - 3 hours from chennai, 5 hours from bangalore. The drive from chennai through the East cost road is a wonderful sight to watch - u actually travel alongside the sea.
within the city, autos are the best means of transport. Generally, the rates are fixed, but u need to be careful. The people are helpful, and you can ask someone the normal rate to a place and negotiate for the same.
The best thing is to approach traffic police and take their help. they are also very helpful.
if you want, you can also hire two wheelers - like in Goa, for a very nominal rate and be on your own.
The traffic offlate is very busy, but you can always manouver through the next parallel road, and thery is no way you will get lost.
Stay
You get very cheap to very expensive hotels. Youcan also get beach resorts - 10 kms from the city, with private beaches.
Places to see
Beach - one of the beautiful beaches ( actually, it is a backwater now.... there used to be 25 feet of sand before the water some 10 years back, but now the water has come in, and there is no sand now). Sunrise in the beach is a treat to watch
There are also many beaches outside the city, which are not crowded.
Auroville - the international city, built like the petals of lotus... outside the city limits- 12 kms from the city center. The matri mandir in auriville is a treat to watch - this is a sphrecial prayer hall, absolute silence, no religion or chanting, they have golden discs on the surface to take energy from the sun. The center of the prayer hall has a large pyramid which takes light from the top and lightens up the entire hall.
Aurobindo ashram - close to the beach - open to public only on specified time during the day. You can see lot of devotees meditating there. Mother is considered to be very kind and generous and grants your wishes if you pray there.
Museum
Temples - there are very famous temples in Pondicherry - manakula vinayagar, Eswaran temple, every second street has a temple.
Language
Tamil/ english/ and a bit of french
Shopping:
The city is so compact that, for shopping, all you need to do is to go to Nehru street and you get it all there.
The cost of goods are cheaper here, mainly due to tax differences.
You also get very cheap DVDs here - u can buy the latest ones for as cheap as Rs45