Philippe Chaplain, chairman of France’s National Heritage League, has a deep fondness of Hanoi and has spent many years researching the thousand year old capital city.

Chaplain first set foot in Hanoi in 2002 and was attracted by the city’s peaceful settings and landscapes, its Old Quarter and historical and cultural sites, especially the Thang Long Royal Citadel, which inspired him to collect information on the city such as books, photos and CDs.

Since 2006, Chaplain has taken part in contests on Thang Long-Hanoi and has won prizes four times.

After seven years, he had amassed over 1,000 photos of Hanoi and subsequently has put on two photo exhibitions about the Vietnamese capital to mark the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

According to Vietnamese historian Duong Trung Quoc, this is a precious photo collection and will help young Vietnamese people to understand more about the capital’s past.

In 2007, Chaplain launched a website in French, Vietnamese and English at: http://www.hanoilavie.com , which is the first website on Hanoi run by a foreigner. He said he hoped that the site would act as a bridge of friendship and a meeting place for fans of Hanoi.

At present, he is in Hanoi to enjoy the atmosphere of the grand millennium. He says that Hanoi is always in his heart and he wants to protect and preserve it along with Hanoi’s citizens./.