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Published: February 26th 2015
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Petite France is a French style village nestled in rural Gyeonggi-do. It is situated between Cheongpyeong and Gaypyeong, two smallish towns. It's quite a trek from Seoul, but since we were in the area, we headed there for a look around. We got a lift there and joined the queue to pay our entrance fee. For a cold, overcast afternoon in January, the place was pretty busy, definitely busier than I expected. I think the entrance fee was 8,000 won. We wandered around the village for a couple hours, we had got a leaflet when entered which had a map on it, but we didn't really use it. There were plenty of things to take photos of. The village is a mix of outdoor and indoor things. The views were pretty, you could see out over the village from the top of the village, and you could see Cheongpyeong Lake in the distance. I only wish the weather had been better, so that my photos would have turned out nicer.
We headed to Fountain Plaza, the fountain wasn't on, I presume it only works in the summer. There were a few shops there, a souvenir shop, a coffee shop, and
Dramas
Filmed at Petite France a random cosmetic store. We headed into Orgel House, which houses a collection of old musical instruments. There are shows on, in some of the different buildings, but during our time there we didn't see any. The village is heavily influenced by The Little Prince, there were lots of paintings and murals of him scattered around the village. The murals were all really pretty. There is also a museum dedicated to The Little Prince and his creator, Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I haven't read The Little Prince, and knew nothing about its author, so it was interesting to find out a bit about him. He's wasn't just an author, but also aviator.
There were a few other exhibition rooms. We wandered around a small art gallery and a couple of rooms that had Marionettes on display. There were a bit creepy. There was also a room, which had costumes in that you could rent to wear. They smelt a bit musty, and the room was freezing. I think that it another task reserved for summer. There is an antique gallery, which is full of knick knacks. You could spend ages looking around all the different things. I liked the painted
glass window hangings. One of the reasons that Petite France is so popular, is that a few Korean dramas have been filmed there. When we were walking around lots of people were posing on a set of sets, as it must have been a major focus, and they had a cardboard cut-out of one character from one drama's (can you tell that I'm not an avid K-drama fan? ) hideous blingy tracksuit, that you could pretend to wear. There is also an old style traditional French House that you can wander around. The drama, Beethoven's Virus was filmed there. The house was interesting to take a look at.
As we wandered round, we could hear a bell ringing, we came across the building it was housed in. After climbing a few flights of stairs, we found the bell. There was a small queue, which meant we couldn't linger. The views from up there were great and the bell was noisy. We were quite hungry, and there area few cafes in the village, but the restaurant was closed. There is also a cafe opposite the entrance, which we went to, to get a warm drink, and wait for the bus,
as we would be able to see if it turned up. The bus stops have the bus timetables pinned up, so you can check when the buses are due. We took the public bus to Cheongpyeong bus terminal. There is also a tourist shuttle bus, which if you want to visit a few of the different sights in the area, i.e. Petite France, Nami Island, and the Garden of Morning Calm, it would be good to buy. It is a hop-on hop-off bus, and a day ticket only costs 5,000 won.
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