Puducherry
Pondicherry beaches are a must visit ones in Tamil Nadu, their brilliant colours radiating all over the city is a lovely sight to behold. Their long eternal shores dotted with few stalls and lots of foreign tourists basking in the sun will give you a feel of entering into a western nation. These beaches are touched with a tint of Anglo-French culture.
With a coast line of 32 kms, well-planned French Boulevard town, palm-fringed beaches, resorts, backwaters, water sports centre, fishing villages, harbour, the pier, the famous Aurobindo Ashram, the international city of Auroville, world-renowned Yoga centres and other attractions, Pondicherry is the ideal place to spend your holidays with your family. There's something for every one.
The origin of Pondicherry is buried in legends. According to one view, the town was once called Vedapuri and was a seat of Vedic culture, and the abode of Sage Agastya. Prof. Jonvean Dubrouil, the French archeologist believes that the Ashram of Agastya was on the very spot where the main building of Sri Aurobindo Ashram stands today.
Remnants of an ancient port town have been excavated at Arikamedu, 6 kms from Pondicherry town, clearly proving that it had trade connections with Rome and Greece, around the period 100 BC and 100 AD.
Pondicherry continued to flourish even during the Chola period, as the discovery of the Chola coins from the eleventh and twelfth centuries indicate. These Chola coins and the artefacts from the excavations at Arikamedu can be viewed in the Pondicherry Museum.