Intach Pondicherry — Attraction in Puducherry

We did the combined French Quarter and Tamil quarter heritage tour with Mr Vetrivel of the Pondicherry visitor centre, located at Le Cafe on the promenade. You can book a place in the tour from the Intach office the day before.

The tour was incredibly informative and it was very interesting to learn about the history of Pondicherry and how this has influenced it's architecture. There is the opportunity to go inside some buildings such as the Sacred Heart Basilica, and other buildings are pointed out for you to return to at your own leisure. There is also chance to take plenty of pictures.

The combined tour started at 6am for us, and the meeting spot was a building 10 minutes walk from our accommodation, but can vary based on guide. It took around 2.5hrs to complete. You will need change for a snack half way and for a rickshaw to the last part of the tour, which for us circled back to the starting point.

Would highly recommend if you want to know more about the history and architecture of...

Mr Venket took us on a heritage tour that included both the French Quarter and the Tamil Quarter. You can reserve your position on the tour at the Intach office. The excursion was really instructive, and it was fascinating to read about Pondicherry's past and how it influenced its architecture. There is the opportunity to enter some buildings. We can see the influence of French, Dutch, and Portuguese on the architecture, as well as an interesting mix of Tamil Hindu culture. Our tour guide is quite knowledgeable. He responded eagerly to our questions.Very fulfilling and informative tour to begin exploring ...

INTACH is a non-profit organization, which collaborates with other NGO's for restoration and maintenance of heritage buildings in Pondicherry. They have undertaken several projects, some of them are complete and the results are quite nice. For instance, the area around the Ayii in Bharathi Park was beautified by Intach. It's the best place to go if you are curious about the architecture in Pondy. However, they don't have a library, but you can always ask at the reception...