The municipal festival of France’s Choisy-le-Roi city, which highlighted Vietnam as this year’s theme, took place along the bank of the Seine River last weekend, attracting about 15,000 visitors.
The municipal festival of France’s Choisy-le-Roi city, which highlighted Vietnam as this year’s theme, took place along the bank of the Seine River last weekend, attracting about 15,000 visitors.
Mayor of Choisy-le-Roi Didier Guillaume said his city has shared close ties with Vietnam for half a century through the past negotiation and signing of the Paris Peace Accords as well as its current cooperation with Hanoi’s Dong Da district.
He said the city holds a tradition of inviting a partner country to become the center of its annual festival and 2019 is earmarked for promoting Vietnam’s culture and tourism.
A stall at the festival run by the city's chapter of the France - Vietnam Friendship Association.
Choisy-le-Roi has worked with the cultural center of Vietnam in France to prepare for the event, the official elaborated.
The event featured spaces introducing Vietnamese villages, food, and traditional music. Also on display were photos on Vietnam by Thiery Beyne, who now lives and works as a photographer in the Southeast Asian country.
On the occasion, a flower mural along the bank of the Seine was inaugurated. Painted by six Vietnamese artists, it is 3m in height and 30m in length, portraying typical flowers of Vietnam.
Choisy le Roi, a suburban city 20km to the East of Paris, is where the two negotiation delegations of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Southern Vietnam stayed during the negotiations on the Paris Peace Accords on ending war and resuming peace in Vietnam from 1968 to 1973. In 2013, the local authorities inaugurated a special square named ‘Paris Agreement’.
Source: VNA