We were quite excited about going to Pondicherry as it was once a French colony and had apparently held onto some of its froggy influences. We were expecting lovely architecture and boulangeries galore so were keen to go there. As with most things in India, expectations are rarely met.

We knew from the guide book that only a small part of the city is considered the French quarter so were not surprised to find our hotel on a standard Indian road. Although it was a lot plusher than what we'd come to expect, super clean and modern! The first night we went out and ate at the most french restaurant we could find! As this was in the French part of town there was not a curry in sight, thank god as I was still recovering! Hannah had lemon chicken and I had Beef Bourguignon. It was fairly overpriced for the quality but I was just happy to be eating beef :) 
 
The next day we headed out to try and find some roads which had apparently kept their Indo-French architecture and charm. After much searching in the heat we realised that we'd been standing on the road we were looking for and were currently asking for directions to it... got some funny looks. It just wasn't what we were expecting! Run down houses, rubbish on the road, beeping tuk-tuks. There were some nicer buildings here if you looked really hard and you could have said they were french influenced but I wouldn't of called it a nice place. We wandered through the French town (which is weirdly full of French ex-pats!), past a foul smelling canal/open sewer and found a beach of jagged black rocks covered in rubbish. It really hadn't been a successful day and we were both getting a bit too hot in the sun. To cheer ourselves up we decided to visit a bakery which had been written about in our guide book and apparently appeared on Rick Steins India program some weeks earlier. It was called Baker Street and did all manner of breads, cakes and cheeses! It apparently looked amazing on the program. We really should learn to take these things with a pinch of salt. We got there and sure enough there were some breads and baguettes out. The cabinets and bread baskets were mostly empty though. There were some tasty cakes out on display and even a fridge full of French cheese.... Hannah's mouth was watering! Immediately we decided we wanted a sandwich. The only ones they had on display were ham and cheddar, chicken salad and tuna salad. A tame selection by anyone’s standards so we asked if they could make us one up with some of the French cheese and other ingredients they had. Of course they couldn't! Why would people come to a French bakery and want brie in their sandwich!? Or something other than the processed cheddar I got served! God forbid we gave them more money than necessary. Oh well.
 
The next day we spent time wandering around the French quarter again. We still didn't find much we liked. Disappointing but not unexpected. We were quite relieved now to be leaving for Bangalore as this was our last stop on our Indian adventure.