The French Village

French Village

The Mercure Hotel is designed to look and feel like a provincial French village. After the tourists and day-trippers had gone back down the mountain on the final 5pm cable car, we had the whole village to ourselves.

evening on Ba Na Hill

In the evening, the fog and rain cleared away, although the air was still damp and cold. We set out on foot to explore the charming little medieval-style French village.

wandering the village streets

Since it was so wet and misty, the chill was actually quite cold! Even the other guests staying at the hotel up on the mountain were mostly staying inside - dining in one of the nice restaurants, swimming in the heated pool, or just relaxing inside the comfy rooms. We only had one night up on Ba Na Hill though, so we set out to explore every corner of the village.

the "golden hour"

As the sun went down, the European-style buildings were lit up by the warm golden glow of lanterns, making the village even more beautiful and atmospheric.

evening on the hilltop

The next morning, we arose early. Again, we wanted to explore the village in the daylight before the hoards of visitors would arrive.

bright and early morning

The village is centered around St. Denis Church, a small and absolutely beautiful Gothic-style church right in the middle of the village square. It looks centuries old, although it's only recently-constructed along with the hotel and the rest of the French village. Early in the morning, the village square was deserted and silent. It was so silent, in fact, that a lone monkey felt brave enough to wander around searching for a snack!

a monkey!

It may not be a real historical church, but St. Denis had some of the most beautiful stained glass that we've seen in Vietnam!

the Church of St. Denis

stained glass windows

In the morning, we noticed several couples taking "pre-wedding" photos. In Asia, it's not bad luck for the groom to see his bride in her wedding dress, I guess! There were several couples posing in dress and tuxedo in the French village. Not a bad place at all for some nice couple pictures!

early morning in the village

Since Pinky's sister was with us, we were able to take a few couple pictures of our own - normally we have to take "selfies", or just have one or the other of us in a picture.

totally not posed!

Eventually, we took a break from our morning exploration to take advantage of the gigantic buffet breakfast. I'll miss this hotel - especially the temperature and the food!

this is totally not posed either