Meta Provence, another European-inspired village in South Korea. Not as famous as Petite France in Gapyeong, but it's never wrong to visit this place if you come to Damyang. Located right in front of the famous Damyang Metasequoia-lined Road (click to see the 1st part of my Damyang trip), maybe that's why they named it Meta Provence. You probably know already, the "Meta" here comes from the word "Metasequioa", being shorten. Inside of it, you can find cafes, fashion outlets, and pensions which designed like the buildings in European village.


Actually I have no idea about this village and it's not even on my list when I planned to go to Damyang. Once I arrived at Damyang bus terminal, I told the taxi driver to go to Metasequoia-lined Road and he dropped me off in front of Meta Provence. I got distracted at first by this lovely Christmas decoration surrounded by white roses covered by snow. I decided to go ahead to Metasequoia-lined road first and planned to take a look of this village later on.


After took a stroll and lots of camera clicks on Metasequoia-lined road, I went back to Meta Provence. At first, I want to find a nice cafe to sit and have a cup of hot choco, but most of the cafes and shops there were closed at that time, probably because of the heavy snowfall for the past three days (?). Few Korean families came there later on to have lunch at few restaurants that still opened. Think of the time, so I cancelled my plan to have hot choco and just took a tour of this village.


This Little Prince painting on the wall reminds me of Gapyeong's Petite France. Honestly, I still don't know why the story of Little Prince become so popular in South Korea and inspire so many attractions here. I even found a toilet in one of rest areas which decorated very nicely with drawing of Little Prince on its wall. It's like the prettiest and the most thematic toilet I've ever seen. Sorry for being out of topic :P





Found this stack of colorful donuts, so random but kinda cute though for taking photos here. There are many other unique sculptures and drawings on the wall, but at that time some areas of the village were under construction, so I couldn't really take nice photos.




Well, I just remember that this place was also used as filming site for "Mask" (가면) drama episode 14. If you read my previous post about the reason why I'm so interested to visit Damyang, you might think I'm obsessed with this drama. LOL Actually no, I'm not that obsessed. I just found that the filming location (the Metaseqoia-lined road especially) is so pretty and I promised myself to visit that place, turns out I discovered more spots which being used for that drama as I walked around Damyang area.


Walked further, I found these white-painted houses which blend well with the snow pile. It seems nice to stay in one of these pensions.



At the back of this complex, there was construction going on and I noticed this little white pavilion up on the hill which I found pretty. Well, almost anything covered by snow turns pretty (before the snow melts and it turns nasty LOL).


Address:
516-4 Hakdong-ri, Damyang-eup, Damyang, Jeollanam-do, South Korea

How to get there:
Take direct bus from Seoul Central City Bus Terminal (by subway, go to Express Bus Terminal station exit 8) to Damyang Bus Terminal (3 hours 30 mins). From Damyang Bus Terminal, take taxi to get to Meta Provence (5-10 mins).

If you plan to stay in Gwangju (and then visit Damyang), you could take bus from Seoul Central City Bus Terminal to Gwangju Bus Terminal (3 hours 30 mins), bus is available every 5-10 mins. Get out from Gwangju Bus Terminal and walk to the bus stop in front of the bus terminal / U-SQUARE, then take local bus no. 311 to get to Damyang Bus Terminal.