We chanced upon the poster board that featured a Petite France tour at the AREX subway station of the Incheon airport, which inspired Bro to add the attraction to our itinerary.
Although the journey by train took almost an hour, we were pretty thankful that the rain had tapered down when we reached the Cheongpyeong Station (The merciless rain had cost us our chance to visit both Everland and Nami Island!), and being ardent fan of Korea, convinced that Petite France has enough merits to be worth a visit!
Frozen in the gloomy weather, I found myself stranded in the sheltered station while Bro sprinted to the bus stop to check if the bus at the nearest bus stop could take us to the French cultural village at Gapyeong. (We were looking high and low for jackets to fight the cold but couldn't find any other than trench coats which cost more than a hundred so I ended buying an A&F jacket! Even so, u don't find any Korean trembling as hard as us. I think they live for fashion; they can wear thin chic frocks without looking like they are about to die from the cold.)
The not-at-all-sweet and very bland cappuccino dispensed by the vending machine.
Entrance; the gateway to 'flowers, stars and the Little Prince'.
One of the premises where the Running Man ran in.
Bro was attracted to the faint music coming from one of these French-styled houses and subconsciously followed to its origin. A girl singing with her beautiful, high-pitched voice in a small concert theatre has won hearts of many fans, including my bro's, who applauded and cheered loudly for her.
Located along the aisle that led to the theatre were rows of paintings of the Petite France architecture, one of which was really well-liked by my bro, one that illustrates how the houses look like when it snows.
Photoshoot on canvas.
Spotted Pokemon from the cafe! The structure, situated behind Charmander and Squirtle, that looks somewhat like a lighthouse was where Ji Hyo, the last surviving member in Running Man episode 40, found the last The Little Prince's coat, before she was chased down and caught by her pursuers!
Hand puppets!
The intense pangs of hunger led us to this one and only Western restaurant, which looked like it just waltzed out of fairy tale. The owner of this bistro was very amicable and spoke really good English.
Brochure which greeted us at the entrance, has detailed description of every unique house in the European territory.
The only times that Bro gave me peace was when he got hungry or when he was entertaining the comments on his Facebook posts on Korea. Lol.
The 7 days of dining in Korea was spent without any single guilt of ruining my weight management plans. My cheese croquettes; can you imagine how sinful it gets?
Bro also ate whatever he wants; no second thoughts of staying healthy whatsoever. Lol.
Cheese beef steak, but to keep guilt to the minimum and be in self denial, he finished the salad.
No drinks were sold in the bistro, but the owner explained to us that they specialised in upholding the reputation of their food standard and suggested for us to get drinks at a nearby cafe and added that he wouldn't mind us bringing outside food in. I was not at all surprised when Bro delivered not only my coffee but also a serving of waffles to satisfy his sweet tooth.
Our first stop was this exhibition hall nearest to the entrance.
In it was a sculpture of The Little Prince and his friend, the fox.
Simba likes this grey wool sweater which I bought one of the boutiques in Myeongdong. I bought it in a haste while Bro droned on and on about his life, so I didn't try it out in the fitting room and it turned out to be a little too big. :(
My asymmetrical white dress was bought from the same shop too. :D
As we walked further into the hall, we found ourselves surrounded by display cases of dolls dressed in European clothing of the early 19th century.
I will let the pictures of these dolls walk you through the fashion of the olden days.
I particularly like what's like the bubble dress on the extreme right. It brought out elegance and perhaps some contemporary fashion in the doll and I think the doll's dewy make up helped alot too.
And yup I had to zoom her in.
Clowns, who appeared in some of our nightmares and hung from the middle of nowhere, gave me the creeps.
Dolls in a cot watching the acrobat perform? Weird.
I would better not flood you with creepy pictures of more dolls. Bro was pretty creeped out since he sat on a nearby bench while I was snapping pictures of them one after another and told me to leave this dingy, eerie room asap.
Look at the umbrella hanging down from the signage as part of the aloft adornment to the gift shop, the umbrella that is covered with stretches from The Little Prince comic. I really nearly bagged it home but resisted after conjuring up memories of the 5 umbrellas hung from my cupboard. Simba, an enthusiastic collector of umbrellas, collected 2 from Nex, 1 from The Body Shop, 1 from Legoland and 1 from Doraemon Land. It was unlike me to not buy anything from a gift shop overseas but this time round I kept my cool and conscious since the prices of the souvenirs were outrageous!
Another unique element of Petite France was this memorial hall that is dedicated to Saint-Exupery, the author of the celebrated French novel, Le Petit Prince.
This was one of the initial stretches drawn by Saint-Exupery in his jotter book. From the information boards in the hall, we learnt that Saint-Exupery was a pioneering aviator and has won worldwide recognition from the novel that speaks somewhat of his life.
Le Petit Prince's children book.
A 50 dollar note with the author and the illustrated combined.
Situated in the attic of the hall, a TV features an episode of the cartoon in French and although we couldn't fathom any part of it, we had some fun watching the high resolution graphics and resting our exhausted legs.
Me with the sculpture of a page from the comic book, which seems to have been printed from the comic by a 3D printer!
Great for children's photoshoot! :D
Then, we set foot into the Orgel House to view the ancient musical instruments that were played by people who lived few hundred years apart from us.
An evidence to show that Bro had broken the rules of the Orgel House; Look at the notice on the top right of this pic and then look at what he is doing.
The reason that piqued his curiously into touching the music box was that this 200-year-old box plays the melody of the lyrics you loaded into it. Yes, the box can read notes!
A bottle that contains a globe that houses 2 ballerinas.
"Please enjoy with your eyes." LOL!
An unique blend of a guitar and a harp. Bro couldn't contain his excitement upon seeing this and unhesitantly posted a question on his Facebook wall to his friends with this pic attached, "Guitar or harp?"
While on our way to the Play House, we investigated these houses with an attempt to probe into them by twisting the knobs of those doors but to our surprise, they were all locked! They turned out to be an accommodation for visitors who want to wake up in a fairy tale land everyday. We were lucky that no one was behind these doors at that point of time.
A life-sized pop-up fairy tale book of the Red Riding Hood and Cinderella to keep us enraptured in the whimsy countryside.
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