Korea, Seoul Life, Travel

Day Trips from Seoul: Petite France & Garden of Morning Calm

Petite France & the Garden of Morning Calm are both located in the Gapyeong area and can be visited on the same day as Nami Island. The easiest way to get to both places is to take the Gapyeong Shuttle Bus. It costs 5000 KRW for the whole day so it’s quite worth it. Read on how to use the Shuttle Bus in this post.

Petite France

The stop right after Nami Island if you take the shuttle bus is Petite France. It is supposedly a “French cultural village set in the Korean countryside”. Entrance will cost 8000 KRW but if you have a Gyeonggi-do coupon booklet from the Korean Tourism Organisation, you can get it for 6000 KRW. Alternatively, if you are young enough to look like a teenager, you can also get a cheaper ticket – don’t say I said this 😉

The place had a lot of hype after a famous drama used it as their set – “My Love from Another Star”. Although I was excited to see the place, I was honestly pretty disappointed when I reached. The entrance price was expensive (it’s the same price as Nami island and the Garden) but it is way smaller.

There are some shows that you can catch, one of them is the show at the puppet theatre that runs at 11.50 PM and 3.00 PM for 25 minutes. I don’t think you need to pay extra for that so maybe the show can make it more worth while to visit BUT I’m almost certain it will be in Korean. We didn’t get to catch the show because we got to know about it too late 🙁 Try watching and let me know how it went? You can watch other performances by checking the board that is updated daily with the timings of the shows.

You can also go to the art galleries inside some of the buildings and look at paintings if you are into art. Other things you can do there is to go inside the houses and see the display of how a “typical traditional” french house looks like. I think the houses are very artificial and stereotypical which is also why I did not really enjoy it.

Conclusion is, if you really love art or you really like the drama “My Love from Another Star”, go ahead and visit Petite France. But if you do not have the time, and if you are like me, I would recommend skipping this place and going directly to the garden.

Garden of Morning Calm

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The Garden of Morning Calm is the last stop on the Gapyeong Shuttle Bus from Nami Island. The entrance fee costs 8000 KRW, the same as Nami Island and Petite France.

The garden is pretty big and it closes by sunset so if you are planning to go there, which I strongly recommend, you should go at least 2.5 hours before it closes.

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The place where they shot Moonlight Drawn By Clouds (구르미 그린 달빛) drama (Ep 1)

We did not know that the garden was large so we only allocated 1.5 hours there and it was definitely not enough time. If you don’t have the time, I would recommend skipping Petite France and going here instead 🙂 Try to go before it gets dark to get good photos!

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Some must-go spots for photos : Number 22, 23, 20, 25, and 26

Have fun! Let me know if you have any questions in the comment section below 🙂

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