Midterms at my school started yesterday and will finish on Wednesday. Then we have no school Thursday and Friday for Children's Day, and no school Tuesday, for Buddha's birthday. As a celebration my school went on a trip to Petite France in Gapyeong in Gyeonggi-do (the suburban/rural area that surrounds Seoul.)
We left at 11 (we have half days all this week) and boarded a party bus outside the school gates. (Korean buses are pretty epic. There are always wild Rococo curtains and decorations hanging off the windows and usually a TV, built-in karaoke system, and sometimes flashing lights or a disco ball. Unfortunately my school only used the TV this time to watch American crime dramas, which Korean people love... at least I assume they do, because they are always on TV.)
We drove for about 20 minutes and stopped at a restaurant for lunch. It was so busy they actually ushered us out after our plates were half-finished. I got spicy bean sprout soup. Yes, I used to really loathe bean sprouts, but in the spicy soup, they weren't too bad. And it was better than the alternative (crab covered in spicy sauce) which would have ended up all over the front of my dress (and also my upper arms, where the soup we had for dinner ended up... but that happened later.) After our rushed lunch we piled back in the van.
Basically this trip was perfect for me because we made a bathroom stop every 30 minutes. It was actually kind of annoying, and took us much longer to reach Gapyeong, and usually the bathrooms were public rest stops without toilet paper and they smelled kind of bad, but whatever. I really needed multiple bathroom breaks because teachers would come up and down the aisles every 20 minutes and politely force me to accept various drinks (water, Gatoride, Chilsung cider... everything but coffee, which I knew I would never drink.) We also got a cute little snack pack when we boarded, with cookies, bread, nuts, dried fish, and M&Ms!
My school is in Eastern Seoul so within half an hour or less we were in country land. Very different from Seoul. Lots of beautiful untouched mountains, overgrown fields, and little streams. Occasionally you could see Buddhist grave markers and statues on the sides of the mountains, or little gardens with fences made of trash and tree branches and the cute old farmers hanging out on little huts they made out of tree branches and huts. It was like stepping back in time- this is what Korea must have looked like 60 years ago. I saw a beautiful, enormous (maybe 20-story?) white church building with a giant cross sticking up between two mountains, and groups of white high-rises sticking out of the sides of mountains (reminiscent of Hong Kong.) It was really beautiful. As we got closer to Gapyeong, we saw more run-down old restaurants and houses near the roads.
Before we went to Petite France we actually stopped at a lake (Homyeong Lake?) to 'take a rest' or something. Everyone just took tons of glamor shots of themselves. The lake was really pretty and had a nice look-out spot you could walk up to and two big swan boats floating in the middle. You can't actually swim in the lake, though. Lots of old Korean grandmothers and grandfathers were relaxing in the sun in their hiking gear. Old Korean women always wear bedazzled glittery sun visors to protect their skin when they go out (it's kind of a joke with foreigners here) and these women had the most ridiculous big glittery visors of all time. I also had to wait forever to the bathroom because they all pushed ahead of me (ajumma are so pushy.) When I finally emerged from the bathroom they were all sitting in a circle outside singing "Amazing Grace" in Korean.
We got back on the bus and FINALLY headed to Petite France. Petite France is really in the middle of nowhere. It's near another lake, with nothing around it but little restaurants, motels, and pensions. In Korea a pension is a little house you can rent instead of a hotel or motel room. They are really cute and I stayed in one once near Everland. There were some people out on their boats, since the weather was nice, and we even saw someone water-skiing (the drunk teachers thought this was hilarious.)
Petite France is beautiful, but there's really not much to do other than take pictures. It's a small recreation French Village on the side of a mountain. You can guy French-style dishes and knick-knacks, which is about the only unique thing you can do. You can also get French coffee and waffles, but you can do that anywhere in Seoul. There were also recreation French rooms which were really anachronistic but kind of funny. And there was a cage with rabbits and a turkey and a lighthouse. Also there is a small stage where throughout the day two men will play piano and guitar and sing songs that are not French like "Fly Me to the Moon" and Frank Sinatra songs. It was crazy, and even crazier than I expected.
We had an hour to look around so everyone split up and explored and took lots of pictures. If you are a fan of dramas, one room has photographs and autographs of tons of famous people on its walls (I didn't see Big Bang but I did see Lee Min Ho.) Also, the room where they filmed the office of the music conductor from the TV show "Beethoven Virus" is here, and you can pose behind his desk. And, they filmed part of the first episode of "Secret Garden," when Joo Won and Ra Im first meet each other, outside in Petite France (Ra Im is a body double who is filming a fight scene on the streets of Petite France.) There is a commemorative sign that everyone wanted to get a picture with. When I saw that scene when I was watching the show, I thought they were in Petite France (I'd seen a few pictures before,) so I was happy to learn that I was right (pshhh, I'm ALWAYS right.)
We were there for an hour and did everything you could possibly do so after that we left and went for dinner. We got a spicy fish soup that had potatoes and tons of vegetables in it. It was really good but I don't remember the name. It was just 'spicy fish head soup.' Usually at school gatherings everyone gets totally trashed but there wasn't a lot of drinking this time. I just took shots of cider every time someone called for a toast, and so did most of the other teachers.
Then we went home, watching another episode of CSI or NCIS or whatever on the TV and eating snacks. I had the window seat and it was really comfortable and I slept through most of the trip home, waking up automatically when we were a minute from school (that always happens! It's like your body subconsciously knows where it is!)
So, my opinion is that Petite France is adorable and a great place to take pictures, but maybe not worth making an independent trip there on your own. I think the best thing to do would be to go in the summer and rent a pension for a day or two and go to Petite France and also enjoy swimming and boating on the lake. It was about 1.5-2 hours from Eastern Seoul.
Now, the best part- pictures!
