Pondicherry in three days
With three days, add the countryside of the Puducherry region to the old town and the coast. Villianur, on the road to Villupuram, has a great Shiva temple with medieval inscriptions and one of the first shrines to Our Lady of Lourdes outside France; the lakes of Ousteri and Bahour are among the best places in the region to see water birds.
Days one and two
Follow “Pondicherry in one day” and “Pondicherry in two days”.
Day three: Villianur and the lakes
On the way out of town, St. Andrew’s Church at Reddiarpalayam holds the tomb of Kanakaraya Mudali, dubash of the French Company. At Villianur, see the Thirukameeswarar temple and the Lourdes shrine, then the bird sanctuary at Ousteri Lake. Bahour Lake, the second largest in Puducherry, is to the south.
Jayarathina · CC BY-SA 3.0 ChurchSt. Andrew’s Church, Reddiarpalayam
Church first built in 1745 by Kanakaraya Mudali, dubash of the French East India Company, whose tomb is inside; believed destroyed in 1761 and rebuilt in 1830.
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Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0 TempleThirukameeswarar Temple, Villianur
Shiva temple at Villianur where Shiva is worshipped as Kameeswarar and Parvati as Kokilambigai; its two-acre complex has inscriptions from the 14th century.
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Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine, Villianur
Marian shrine and parish church at Villianur, among the first in the world dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes outside France; its statue was crowned in 1886.
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Dinesh Valke from Thane, India · CC BY-SA 2.0 AttractionOusteri Lake (Oussudu)
The largest lake of Puducherry, about 800 hectares shared with Tamil Nadu: a man-made tank declared a bird sanctuary in 2008.
P Jeganathan · CC BY-SA 3.0 AttractionBahour Lake
The second largest lake in Puducherry and one of its Important Bird Areas, near Bahour in the south of the territory.