Petite France

You come around a bend in the road, and the hillside changes color. Where there were green slopes, now there are walls of yellow, blue, pink, and white. Small buildings with steep roofs climb the slope above a wide lake. It looks like a corner of a European village, set down beside the water in the hills of Korea.

This place is called Petite France. The name means Little France in the French language. It sits in Gapyeong, in the hills outside Seoul, on a slope above Cheongpyeong Lake. It was built as a cultural village, a place to bring a piece of French style and French story to Korean soil.

The village is built around a book. That book is The Little Prince, written by the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The story tells of a small prince who travels from a tiny planet and learns about love and loss. Across the village you will find scenes and figures from the tale, waiting for you along the paths.

There is a hall here that remembers the author himself. Inside you can learn about Saint-Exupery, who was a pilot as well as a writer, and who disappeared on a flight during the Second World War. The exhibits hold copies of his work, his portrait, and pieces that recall his life in the air.

Around sixteen buildings stand on the slope, each one painted in bright colors and topped with red or orange roofs. The style follows the look of old French houses, with shutters on the windows and stone underfoot. Narrow lanes and stairways connect them. Around each corner there is a small square or a fresh view of the lake.

The village holds many small collections. One building keeps music boxes, the kind with a turning cylinder that plays a tune. Another shows old furniture and household pieces in the French manner. There are puppets too, and at set times a puppet show is performed, the figures moving on their strings for the watching crowd.

Many Korean visitors come here because of television. Several well-loved dramas and variety shows were filmed in these lanes. Scenes from the drama My Love from the Star were shot here, and the program Running Man used the village as well. Fans walk the paths to stand where their favorite scenes once took place.

The setting itself is part of the pleasure. From the upper terraces you look out over Cheongpyeong Lake, wide and calm below. Hills rise on the far shore. The colored roofs sit in the front of the view, and the water sits behind. It is a place made for slow walking, and for stopping often to look.

Children find a great deal to enjoy here. The bright colors, the puppets, the music, and the open squares all invite play. Adults often come for the photographs, for the unusual sight of a French village among Korean hills. Couples come for the quiet corners and the long view out across the lake.

The village changes with the day. In the bright hours the colors are sharp under the sun. As evening comes, lamps are lit along the lanes, and the buildings take on a softer glow. Music drifts from the open doors. The crowds thin, and the place feels more like a small town settling into the night.

It helps to remember what this place is. It is not an old village carried over from France. It was made in our own time, with care, to share a story and a style. Knowing that does not lessen it. It is a stage set built with affection, and it quietly invites you to play along.

A visit here is easily joined with the rest of Gapyeong. The area around the lake holds gardens, an island, and other small attractions, and many people see several of them in a single day. Petite France itself does not take long to walk. An hour or two is enough to climb the lanes, watch a show, and look through the small museums. That leaves the rest of the day free for the hills and the water nearby.

Before you go, find a bench on the upper slope and sit for a moment. Look at the colored roofs, the lake, and the hills beyond. Somewhere nearby is a small figure of the prince who came from another world. The story he carries is simple. What is essential, it says, is unseen by the eye. Carry that thought down the hill.