A visit to Pondicherry is not complete without the beach! The colonial buildings are a must watch, not many towns have retained their heritage in this part of the country as Pondicherry! Some of the notable stops in your walk along the beach is stone mountain, Kargil Memorial, French War Memorial, Light House, Gandhi Statue and Nehru Statue, Promenade Hotel, Ambedkar Mani Mandapam and finally the statue of Dupleix. Dupleix was the French Governor who established it as the center of French colonial rule in India. Recently, the stretch behind the dupleix was opened, one can walk along the beach and reach the end of small pier. The beach front can be seen in number of movies/ads. The Tourism office is also on the beach road. They do have packages, so one can reach out to the tourism office and see if the packages fit your purpose. I recommend one exploring Pondy on their own. The beach front is crowded like hell these days. During weekends its a vehicle free zone so the entire road is available to pedestrians. Recommend taking a walk along the beach front very early morning or very late night when the crowd is gone.
One can see a chain of wooden logs in the sea, those wooden logs were part of a wooden pier sometime back. The sea has been eroding the beach front and it has come in submerging jetty and the wooden logs are the left overs. So it gives you an idea how much the sea has come in. Lot of stones are dropped regularly to check the erosion. Only Mother Nature knows whether she will give back sand to the Pondicherry Beach.
