The first detailed French plan of Pondicherry. In the lower part, a lettered and numbered key and the coat of arms of Mr. Joseph-François Dupleix.

The Compagnie des Indes, the French equivalent of the British East India Company, was established in Paris with the blessing of King Louis XIV in 1644. Thirty years later, in 1674, its representatives acquired the territory around Putucéri from a local Tamil ruler and set about establishing a French trading post which they renamed Pondicherry.

For four years, between 1693 and 1697, the post was occupied by the Dutch, who endowed it with strong fortifications before handing it back to the French in a peace settlement. Real difficulties began in 1740, however, when Britain and France, at war in Europe, carried their rivalry to the quiet shores of India's Coromandel Coast.

Joseph-François Dupleix, succeeded in repelling the British and extending French influence in South India. France gradually lost the initiative, however, and Lally, Dupleix's successor, was eventually obliged to surrender Pondicherry to the British in January 1761. The settlement was handed back to the French in 1816, and was held by them continuously until 1954, when it was returned to India. In 1962 the former French Indian territories were officially reconstituted as the Union Territory of Pondicherry, with its capital at the historic city of the same name.

For almost three centuries, though, Pondi was under French rule, and this was certainly long enough to impart a distinctive Gallic quality that adds immensely to the city's charm. In 1761, following Lally's surrender, the victorious British razed Pondi to the ground. But beginning in 1816, throughout a long period of uninterrupted peace, the French rebuilt their Indian capital within the confines of an oval boulevard that circles the entire city.

Inside this oval the main roads run along straight, north-south axes, bisected by lesser streets running east-west.

The city is thus divided into a series of rectangles and squares, which makes it very easy for visitors to find their way about. The eastern third of the oval is separated from the western two-thirds by a straight, north-south canal.

In colonial times the area to the east, facing onto the Bay of Bengal, was known as Ville Blanche, or "White Town", this was where most French residents lived. By way of contrast, districts to the west of the canal were known as Ville Noire, or "Black Town" - an area inhabited primarily by the indigenous Tamil people.

Such invidious distinctions have long since been swept away, but the former Ville Blanche remains the heart of old Pondi. Here the finest colonial buildings, the cleanest, quietest streets, and the most distinguished compounds are set against an almost Mediterranean seafront.
Even today, forty years after the Tricolor was lowered for the last time, Pondi remains redolent of France, with many streets still retaining their French names. Some recall famous generals - Rue Suffren and Rue Mahé de La Bourdonnais, for example. Others celebrate literary figures, such as Rue Alexandre Dumas, or politicians, like Rue St Martin.