Pondichéry, India

Yet another seaside town on the Bay of Bengal. Pondicherry, India, was under French rule for 138 years, from 1674 to 1954. In 1673, French officer Bellanger de l'Espinay moved into the Danish Lodge, marking the beginning of French administration. In 1674, François Martin, the first governor, began projects to turn the fishing village into a port town.

The transition away from French rule was gradual. In 1948, the French and Indian governments agreed that the inhabitants of the French Indian possessions would choose their political future. In 1954, the French possessions were transferred to the Indian Union and became a Union Territory. Puducherry officially became part of India in 1963. Many Tamil residents of Pondicherry have French passports because their ancestors were in French governmental service and chose to remain French at the time of Independence. In 2013, there were 9,950 French nationals in India. I was looking forward to being here, but while the architecture is definitely French. there are signs in French, and some people even speak a little French to this say, there wasn't much left. The "French Fusion" was heavily Indian influenced, and overall glad we spent just an afternoon here.