Beautiful places in the French Quarter

White Town is a grid. The sea is east. The ashram and Manakula Vinayagar sit a few lanes in. Bharathi Park is the green centre. You can walk all of it in a morning if you do not stop; you should stop.

Begin at Aayi Mandapam. Cut east to the promenade and walk north past the Gandhi statue and the old lighthouse. Drop back inland on Rue Dumas for Our Lady of Angels, then Rue Romain Rolland for the villas everyone photographs. End at the ashram if you want silence, or Le Café if you want coffee on the rocks.

Mustard walls need late afternoon. The promenade needs sunrise. The pink church needs a clear morning. Midday is for courtyards and museums; the streets glare.