TacoCat’s Travels #234 (Seoul): Touring France and Italy in Korea? 🤔

Hey Hive!

Sorry for the long gap between posts but we went on a trip to Nagano, Japan for about 10 days before coming back in time for Chinese New Year!

We had a really good time in Japan which I'll be sharing in due time but let's get back to our first trip to Seoul back in Nov 2022! We were waiting post-covid for everyone to go on their holidays before taking a big one and we finally decided to go on our honeymoon! It's also our first time experiencing Fall so we were double excited!

Last time, we wrapped up our second day in Seoul by visiting the N Seoul Tower, which is located Namsan Mountain making it the second highest point in Seoul!

It's actually quite a walk to reach the actual tower since they don't allow cars on such a steep road up the mountain but the observatory was lovely.

There were some seats to enjoy the view and thankfully the weather was quite clear that day. There were also quite a few shops and even a pretty big arcade in the basement of the tower for tourists to enjoy while they visit. We even found this beautifully decorated staircase!

Anyway, it was a pretty long day and we were so exhausted after all the walking and exploring. We got a good rest in our hotel and retired early so we could have a fresh start the next day!

11 Nov 2022. Friday.

We had arranged for a private tour for today since we'll be going out to a further area outside of Seoul called Gapyeong that is not really accessible by public transport. There were 3 places that we'd be visiting in the area so it was more convenient to just hire a private car to take us there.

But first breakfast! I found this cafe called Luft Coffee on Naver Map since Google Maps doesn't work in Korea, curiously enough. The GPS gets all wonky and it can't even detect it right. I'm not sure why this is, but maybe it's because it's too close to North Korea?

Anyway, it looks like a pretty nice and minimalist cafe and is very spacious too! We arrived when they first opened so it was very empty at the time.

It's probably one of the biggest cafes I've ever been in. Even the counter was so long!

They had a huge table in the middle with trays of individually packed handmade cookies of various flavours.

But there were also some pastries in the open as well. They weren't kept under heat lamps though so they got cold pretty quick but I guess that's common for cafes.

There were also some colourful breads and scones.

They also had a selection of refrigerated pastries like these ice cream sandwiches and bottled drinks.

For the drink menu they had quite a wide selection of different coffees and a selection of signature lattes, but they also had a few non-coffee options which was good for us.

We each chose a drink and a food item to share and we bought them to-go since our car was arriving soon.

The cafe was just across the street from our hotel so we went back to the lobby to wait since it was pretty cold and we had arranged for our driver to pick us up there.

In the meantime, we enjoyed a nice hot cocoa to go along with our ham and cheese croissant which was still pretty yummy even though it was cold.

Our driver arrived at 8am promptly and we settled into his car comfortably for the drive. Our first destination was this place called Petite France which is a French cultural village set in the Korean countryside modeled after The Little Prince.

I'm not really familiar with The Little Prince though I do remember having the book growing up. I think I read it but I don't really remember the story so I might not have finished it. Either way, it was an interesting looking place so we thought it'd be cool to check out.

The car was very spacious and comfortable and our driver was very nice and accommodating too. He didn't really speak much English and actually talked to us in Chinese which was surprising, and we had a pleasant journey.

It was a pretty smooth journey and there wasn't much traffic. Here's the map to show where this place is exactly, and how far we'd be traveling.

When we arrived it was around 9:30am and we thought we'd have to beat the crowds of other tourists but thankfully there weren't that many people around.

It was actually surprisingly empty and our driver very graciously helped us to get tickets at the ticket office. He told us where to find him and what time we'd have to leave to go to the next place so we had about an hour or so to explore Petite France.

I thought there would be loads of other people around so we made sure to get here early and it was deserted.

Right at the entrance there's a photo wall depicting the different places in this park and it did look quite nice.

After we got our wristbands, we were free to roam the park! There was a split path to Petite France or the Italian Village which we weren't aware of but I guess is included in our ticket.

We decided to go to Petite France first since we came all the way to see this one and if we had time we would try to see the Italian Village as well.

It was bright and early in the mountains of South Korea we could even see some fog in the distance.

The first thing to greet us was this giant statue of a wooden puppet that reminded me of Pinocchio. I'm not sure if this character was from The Little Prince but it did look a little creepy after a while.

The entrance to Petite France was quite surreal. It definitely felt like we weren't in Korea anymore, apart from the Korean banners around.

The carriage looked like those they use in handsome cab rides that I've seen in US shows.

But the thing is since we've been to Paris before, this didn't really feel like France as well. Maybe in the countryside of France, or a fairytale version maybe?

The walls were very nice and colourful here though and it was so quiet. There wasn't even music playing in the background, and since there was no one else around but us it felt quite unsettling.

There were some shops that we could enter but there weren't any shopkeepers around either. I'm not sure if these items were just for display or you could actually buy them. I don't know who would want to own these things but it only added to the creepy vibe I was getting from this place.

One shop had these very ornate gold frames and ornaments. Everything just screamed European it was like we completely left Asia.

We tried not to get too creeped out while walking through the deserted park seeing these odd pinnocchios around.

Seeing all these old ornate statues in the shops made me feel like I stepped into someone's grandmother's house of sorts. I expected to see layers of dust but there was surprisingly not a speck of dust to be found.

There were some very intricate busts and statues though, even these plates looked pretty cool and definitely fragile.

Even though there wasn't dust we curiously did see a quite a few big cobwebs around. Not just in the shops but also outside. I think it was the first time we actually saw bugs in Korea since we assumed it was too cold for them to survive at the time.

I guess The Little Prince or some other story must have had all these wooden dolls in them since that's the only explanation I can think of for why these are omnipresent in the park.

It was pretty creepy that we saw more of these wooden dolls that we did people though. We figured we must have arrived a lot earlier than the other tourists.

I think this was the main square of the park where both Petite France and Italian Village converge since there was a mural for Italy here.

The art here was pretty lovely though, look at how they blended the paintings into this building so seamlessly!

This doll was particularly creepy with no legs and a mask. I swear I could see this thing crawling towards me with his hands in a horror movie.

Thankfully it was nice and bright out and they did eventually start to play some light music so it was a tad less creepy.

There was a little stage area with a Pinnocchio mural so I guess they also drew inspiration from the movie for this park.

The stage resembled those I'd read about in old books and stories about how plays were performed in the Shakespearean era with the raised steps for the audience to sit on to watch the performers. I wonder why stadiums are built the opposite way these days; I guess to accommodate more seats for concerts now.

There was a Da Vinci exhibition hall downstairs so we went underground to go check it out.

I'm not sure why but the whole exhibition hall actually smelled of chlorine for some reason. I think there was a water installation or something on the same floor or we went under a water area but there was a pretty strong chlorine smell as we descended.

It wasn't a big exhibition hall but there was some history about Leonardo da Vinci and all the art pieces he produced in his lifetime.

I guess he was also an engineer since he designed some useful gadgets as well like double hulls for ships, drills and wheels.

It was pretty interesting since I've only ever known him for his paintings and didn't know he created all these early inventions as well.

I guess that's why they have a whole exhibition hall dedicated to him. He must have led quite a few advancements in early technology back in the day.

There were even some wing scaffolding hanging from the ceiling. I'm not sure why, but maybe he had a hand in designing planes as well?

We arrived at the art section of the exhibition and there were a few photospots including this one where you could become the Mona Lisa!

There were a few others as well but we didn't really bother with them much.

There was a whole room full of Da Vinci's famous paintings but I'm sure they were replicas since the real ones are probably in the Lourve.

I think this is the closest we've come to the Mona Lisa, since we didn't actually go into the Lourve when we were in Paris.

For some reason there was also a collection of Mona Lisa related products in a glass case in the room.

We had to grab a picture with the iconic Vitruvian Man of course.

I actually forgot The Last Supper was also by Da Vinci.

There were quite a few anatomical sketches of his in this room with a projector playing a documentary about Da Vinci.

There was also a huge mural of a place that reminds me of Santorini but I'm sure is probably a place in Italy.

After we left the exhibition hall we decided to go check out the Italian Village which tbh looks pretty similar.

It was also filled with colourful buildings but there was also this place with a gondola in a pool I guess to mimic Venice?

We weren't sure if the bridge was stable enough so it was kind of a gamble but thankfully it was fine.

It was pretty fake though so I'm not sure if this is a good replica but it was cool I guess.

We went upstairs into the fake buildings and came across another silly Mona Lisa photo spot:

There was another little museum right down the road which I thought was a restaurant at first.

Turns out it's another creepy museum with weird dolls and paintings.

It even led to an outdoor area with these clowns and a puppet show stage.

We did finally see some other tourists here thankfully so it wasn't as creepy but these clowns were quite unsettling.

The buildings reminded me more of Amsterdam now than Italy or France tbh.

There were some nice looking pictures they put up as well along the this stretch. I'm not sure what they're for but I guess to add on to the atmosphere without actually building it?

It did feel like walking in a quaint European town though if not for all the clowns.

There were also some fake stage props here for you take pics with.

They were of different fairytales though and not actually Pinnocchio.

I'm not sure if there are villages that actually look like this in Italy but it did give some Amsterdam vibes instead.

For a theme park there actually weren't many open restaurants around. We were getting quite hungry for warm food and the only thing that was open then was this one stall near this little square with a fountain barely trickling water.

Thankfully the stall actually had quite a selection of drinks and snacks including some Korean street food.

One of the warm things other than coffee was oden so we decided to try it.

It was piping hot which was good since it was pretty cold up there in the mountains. It was also quite ironic since we were technically eating Japanese food, in an Italian village in Korea.

I think this place was where we found the most people in our journey so far.

We came to another stage area where there was a clown making some balloon animals with music. We stayed for a while to watch since I felt bad that no one else was around but some other tourists came to watch too and they got free balloons.

There were many buildings around and I was curious if we could enter them. Most of them you could not, but for those you could the only thing you would find was a bathroom, which was good but also quite a letdown.

It's also the only theme park I've been to with so many toilets everywhere you go.

Since we were in France and Italy, of course they had to put an Eiffel Tower somewhere.

Most of the restaurants and cafes we saw were closed which was a shame. I guess it was too early for them to open or something.

But thankfully we could still take lots of photos!

They did a pretty good job with the architecture and design of this place tbh.

There was even a little nature trail.

This led to a cage with pheasants and rabbits for some reason.

Thankfully most of the buildings weren't blocked so we could still go up stairs and stuff to take photos.

And of course at the end was this huge mural of Pinocchio.

And a statue of The Little Prince himself.

But that was pretty much it for Petite France and the Italian Village! Tbh this place is quite nice other than the creepy clowns and the hanging spiders. The architecture and design was quite nice and overall it was a pleasant vibe.

I'm not sure how accurate it was compared to the actual Italy and France or the storybook itself but it was still quite lovely all the same. I'm not sure if I would recommend this place since it is pretty far out of the city and there are definitely better theme parks in Seoul.

But we left before our agreed upon time with the driver since we saw everything pretty quickly.

That's all for today! Sorry for the long post but since I was away for so long I figured we could cover more today.

Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #233 (Seoul): Enjoying Mountaintop views from N Seoul Tower 🗼

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