St. Gilles Street — White Town, Pondicherry

Named after: Saint Aegidius (Saint Gilles, c.640-710 AD), Provençal hermit and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of medieval Catholic tradition

Welcome to St. Gilles Street, named after Saint Aegidius, the Provençal hermit who became one of the most popular saints of medieval France. This is one of the quieter corners of the White Town: lined with trees and beautiful colonial houses, their shuttered facades and walled gardens the kind of scene that makes Pondicherry unlike any other city in India.

Saint Gilles (Saint Aegidius, c.640-710 AD) was a hermit who settled in the forests of Provence and became one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, the group of Catholic saints invoked against various calamities. His cult spread across France and beyond. In Pondicherry, as in every French colonial town, Catholic saints' names were woven into the street grid alongside the governors and admirals, reflecting the Church's role as the second great institution of the comptoir after the trading company itself.

This street is not one of the grand commemorative axes of the White Town. It has no statue, no famous institution, no battlefield name. What it has is what the best streets in this part of Pondicherry often have: shade, quiet, and architecture. The colonial houses here follow the Franco-Tamil tradition: high compound walls in Pondicherry ochre and yellow, arched gateways, high-ceilinged rooms designed for the Coromandel heat, internal courtyards with wells. The trees along the street close overhead. In a city that is often crowded and loud, this is somewhere to slow down.