“Little France” outside of Seoul, in Gapyeong, could also be called “Gauche France” or “Faux France.” It’s a ridiculous caricature of the world’s most visited country. We saw tiny alleyways made of hollow plaster, fake wooden framed cottages, cute cafes that sell ddeokboki for 7$, lame replicas of Parisian iconography, broken fountains in manicured cobblestoned plazas and generic ideas of France as imagined by someone who believes French culture to be epitomized by puppets, mimes and berets. It’s not wholly without charm, it’s just a smarmy charm. A charm that requires ignorance, the Michael Bay kind of charm. Yes, it’s a movie, but nothing is real. The place is replete with symbolic French roosters, Little Prince statues, and dubiously authentic memorabilia.

Yes, I know. I’m in Korea. What did I expect? You don’t get the moniker “Hermit Kingdom” for hundreds of years and then leap into the modern age with a fully realized vision of globally relevant cultural minutiae. Once I got past the fake, forced cute of the little hillside village asking “you think you’re better than me because you’ve been to France?” routine, and suspended my haughty disbelief, I enjoyed our time there. It’s a beautiful setting, the air is clean, people are happy and holding hands, and if you squint your eyes real tight, only letting in the dimmest glow, maybe you could think yourself among the winding streets of Montmarte or the grand boulevards of the “City of Lights”…until an ajumma pushes you out of the way to take 13 solemn pictures in front of a two meter Eiffel Tower.

Here is a collection of several of the hundreds of pictures we took this cloudy, breezy, late fall afternoon in “Petite France.”