Dalat’s French flair

The old French villas on Tran Hung Dao steet in Dalat have been restored and transformed into a high-end resort quarter.
After four years of upgrading and restoration work, last month the Ho Chi Minh City Information Technology Company (CADASA) opened 13 French colonial period villas on Dalat’s Tran Hung Dao street. The villas are now part of a “high-end resort quarter” which will no doubt help showcase the original atmosphere of the former hill station, which was developed by French émigrés at the start of the 20th century.
Dubbed in the past, the “French Street”, Tran Hung Dao has once again stepped into the light as one of the most quintessential and striking promenades in the capital of Lam Dong province. There are also clusters of French colonial period villas on Co Giang, Quang Trung, Phan Chu Trinh, Hoang Van Thu and Huyen Tran Cong Chua streets, most of which were designed and constructed in the early 1920s.
The Tran Hung Dao villas were designed and constructed by the renowned French architect Paul Veysseyre (1896-1963) in the late 1920s and in the early 1930s. Forming a salubrious entrance into Dalat, Tran Hung Dao has always been described as one of mountain town’s most beautiful roads. The road offers a superb panorama formed by Xuan Huong Lake and the adjacent misty valleys.
Originally there were 15 villas, but sadly two of the villas – after years of neglect – were demolished. However, CADASA is planning to recreate two faux-period villas on the vacant lots. According to scholars of Dalat’s architecture, circa 1929 Paul Veysseyre constructed number 16 first as his dwelling place. From there he worked on the designs of the other 14 villas. In 1934, under the guidance of Paul Veysseyre, two French contractors and Vo Dinh Dung -- a Vietnamese contractor – completed the villas in the midst of the pine forest that once covered Tran Hung Dao street.
According to the historian Le Phi, a keen student of architecture, in 1943 Dalat had a total of 1,300 French villas broken up into six “clusters” or quarters, including the Lam Son villa quarter, Chi Lang villa quarter, the railroad Housing Compound, the Decoux villa quarter and the Le Lai villa quarter.
As a tourist destination Dalat fell by the wayside and the neglected villas soon crumbled into a state of disrepair and ruin – Vietnam’s decades-long struggle for independence cast a long shadow over the entire country’s architectural heritage. Dalat was certainly no expection. It’s geographical isolation did not help the villas chances for survival either.
But in recent years Dalat has risen from the ashes. The Le Lai villas were developed into the Evason Dalat by the Six Senses Resorts & Spas Group. In late 2005, after winning a contract to rent 13 old Tran Hung Dao villas for 50 years, CADASA began the restoration of the Tran Hung Dao villas with a total capital of nearly $10 million.
Tran Thi Hong Phuong, director of the Dalat Branch of CADASA said: “All these 13 villas were in a dilapidated state when we first procured them and we faced a lot of difficulties in the process of restoring them.”
“But as we realised how important the value and the potential of the old villas are, CADASA decided to invest in their restoration, while keeping their original noble French features,” says Phuong.
CADASA first formed an advisory council consisting of architects and interior designers in order to determine a viewpoint on how to keep the original architectural style. Le Phi also served as a consultant on the project. Overseeing the project was Phan Minh Tam, a Viet Kieu designer from France who specialises in interior decoration for cruise ships.
Initially, CADASA planned to leave villa No.15 out of the project as it was in such a state of disrepair but in the end the restoration team managed to recreate the villa while maintaining its original façade. The villas were originally built with “Indochinese” brick and a kind of light granite. But each of the 13 villas is noticeably different. The first owners of these villas were professors of Yersin College or French officials, who all demanded their own unique design – as they say in France “viva la difference!”
Only flowers native to the Lang Biang plateau were used for the landscape design while CADASA also planted 1,000 apricot and cherry trees, pine trees and mimosa, all of which offer a sense of that quintessential Dalat natural beauty.
What’s most impressive is that the developers have managed to maintain the integrity of the original French architecture and the wild, natural beauty of the southern highlands. It has been four long years but CADASA has successfully returned this part of Dalat back to its former glory. The high-end resort quarter, which covers six hectares, now offers 65 rooms in 13 villas befitting the old nickname of “French Street”.
During the opening period the rooms can be rented for just $85 to $150 but in future prices will range from $300 to $400 per night.