It is the most pleasant surprise to see a great number of colonial buildings, one ofthe French cultural influence in Laos. The French lifestyle made such a greatinfluence in the Lao urban elite in the Colonial period that it still exists in this day.Let’s imagine how amazing when you can enjoy a breakfast of croissant and café aulait in the back-in-time Vientiane. Lunch may even comprise baked baguettes andpâté accompanied with some wine.

During your Laos tour packages, the most notable memorial to the Frenchinfluence will be its architecture. There are many mansions and small residenceswith the former colonial style along the Quai Fa Ngum riverside.

Furthermore, in the vicinity of That Dam and along the Lane Xang Avenue, travelerscan see shaded boulevards - fine colonial French architecture with shutter and red-tiled roofs. Even though many of the former private residences are in stages ofadvanced decay, others have been painstaking restored.

Gallic influence can also be felt in other towns and cities around the country, withcolonial buildings, villas and a number of pleasant French restaurants in LuangPrabang.

Prior to the arrival of the French, most cities comprised ramshackle collections ofmainly wooden or bamboo stilted houses with thatched roofs, grouped around theovergrown ruins of former temples and palaces.

At the early 20th century, French started to build government buildings, as theRoyal Palace (1904), which was aiming at symbolizing union between the Frenchand the Lao people.

In addition to government colonial buildings, the French also built two-storey brickand stucco villas with pitched tile roofs and wooden shuttered windows toaccommodate the colonial administrators and their families.

However, as elsewhere in the Indochinese colonies, provincial French design wasmodified to suit the hot and humid tropical climate through the addition ofbalconies, verandahs and internal corridors. Construction was entrusted mainly tomigrant Vietnamese labourers, who also built their own two-storey shop-houses indesignated areas.

The design of the colonial villa began to influence subtle changes in the design ofLao urban dwellings, and from the 1930s, inventive architectural hybrids appeared,such as European-style villas on stilts, or stilted wooden houses with their lowerlevels enclosed by masonry walls.

Last but not least, to observe the inventive colonial buildings, you can take a walk inLuang Prabang, except the Royal Palace and the Centre Culturel Français. Eventhough there is not much to visit, but it is a good way to discover the city, and whynot getting lost?!