Visit the Vak Bookshop if you are interested in picking up books on religion and philosophy. It boasts of one of the best collections in the country. The shopping areas are along Nehru Street and Mahatma Gandhi Road. Pondicherry But shopper's delight is Auroville with its charming handicraft items crafted to perfection. They range from beautiful stationery cards, letter paper, gift tags, diaries and wrapping paperto lamps, candles, incense sticks and clothes. Pondicherry is famous for its handmade paper. Also famous is the use of dried flowers on stationery items like greeting cards and letter paper. The perfect place to pick up these is the Sri Aurobindo Handmade Paper Factory (SV Patel Salai). Its high-quality paper has made a name for itself internationally and 75 per cent of the output is exported. Aromatic candles and candles with pressed-in dried flowers are typical Pondicherry products. Iincense sticks manufactured at the Ashram and in Auroville are also very popular. For some interesting crafts, try Cottage Natural (Rangapillai Street) and Mementos (Captain Xavier Street).