← PreviousAt the start of the journeyThe karaoke drama
The little one has already been asleep for an hour when we hear shouting in the hotel. The noise becomes clearer and we realise a karaoke session has just started, even though the singing sounds more like a pig being slaughtered than Céline Dion at the Olympics. We're not tired yet, but the noise annoys us a little, so we set a one-hour limit. If the singing hasn't stopped by 1 am, one of us will go down. And of course the noise gets louder, now sounding like the animal's death throes. Stéphane is afraid it'll end up waking Clémence, so he goes down to ask them to stop the racket. We thought we'd be dealing with Koreans, but not at all: it's two young women and a young man, apparently from Eastern Europe. They feel silly and can only reply with a timid "sorry". The young man was mid-song and looks like a kangaroo caught in the headlights, frozen with his mouth open.
Stéphane comes back up, but the sound of the door has woken Clémence… Maybe it would have been better to let them murder their songs, because she's now wide awake. Disoriented, she thinks it's morning and asks for her bottle. It takes the patience of a saint to make her understand it's still night; we show her the black sky and the night lights, put on lullabies and stories, but nothing works; she can't get back to sleep. It's only around 5:30 that she finally falls asleep, and we do too.
First day of sightseeing in Seoul
To beat jet lag, there's only one solution: be tough on yourself. The alarm at 10 drags us out of such a deep sleep that it's hard to wake up. We know we have no choice, and it takes us a while to wake Clémence too. Our aim was to be out by 11, and we make it a few minutes early. We head for Mapo metro station, a few minutes' walk away, to go to the Bongeunsa area in Gangnam. Gangnam is the city's chic, luxurious district, halfway between a business centre and the plush homes of Korea's upper class. A clever mix of La Défense and Paris's 16th arrondissement, made famous by Psy's inevitable "Gangnam Style". Abroad, the parody went unnoticed, but in the song he openly mocks the country's bourgeoisie.
Starfield Library is a must on any visit to Seoul. It's huge, very aesthetic and unconventional. But the place is spoiled by the enormous crowds, people filming themselves going up and down the escalator and the overall impression that people are here for the beauty of the place rather than for culture. We leave almost immediately and go off to get lost in the side streets.
Rather than going from one tourist spot to the next, we now pick neighbourhoods and wander the streets. It means we don't pressure ourselves to see and do everything, and above all it leaves room for spontaneity and surprises. Our steps lead us to a UNESCO-listed site, the royal tombs of Seolleung and Jeongneung.
We hope their highnesses won't take offence, but we've come more to enjoy the park than for the history. Seoul has the particularity of having several big green spaces that completely cut out the city's noise. Clémence naps in the backpack while we enjoy the walk. She wakes up less than an hour later, so full of energy that we wonder how she does it on so little sleep.
We head off to Seoul Forest, a gigantic green lung in the city with trails everywhere and, above all, a playground. We know South Korea's birth rate is at rock bottom, and we can see it too: there are very few children and few spaces for them. We never come across a little square, and some parks listed for children are just small empty spaces. The one we find is very big, with lots of different equipment, and Clémence has a ball climbing and jumping for more than an hour.
Thoughts on life as parents
We travelled a lot before becoming parents, and having a child obviously turns the pace upside down. Every route takes much longer, as she stops often to look, pick up a flower or a pebble, or marvel at a blinking light. It pushes us towards contemplation too, towards appreciating slow time. All our days revolve around her well-being and abilities. Fortunately she walks a lot for her age and tires slowly. When she feels a bit worn out, she asks to be carried in our arms or in the backpack. She falls completely in love with Cheonggyecheon Stream, and so do we.
Its course used to be covered by an elevated motorway, dismantled in the 2000s. Opposition was fierce at the time, but the results are striking: pollution in central Seoul has fallen by 35% and, paradoxically, traffic has improved too. No Seoul resident would want to go back today, the place is so sumptuous. It's not just a canal running through but a real stream with facilities all along it and even wildlife, as a heron was strolling about. We walk upstream at Clémence's pace; she has fun crossing from one side to the other on the little stepping-stone paths.
We end the evening in a very spacious restaurant in this trendier part of the city centre. We eat dakgalbi (literally stir-fried chicken in spicy sauce), a typical dish made by stir-frying diced chicken marinated in a sauce. Unfortunately, even when we ask for it mild, the dish is "tingly", as Clémence tells us with every mouthful. Had we known the translation, we might have chosen another restaurant, but it's still a nice experience with the big pan on our table. We head back to the hotel on the nearby metro, which works perfectly.