FRANCE
Filipinos in the sunny South of France Text by Jeffrey Cabuay
O
ur national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, was one of the first Filipinos to ever set foot in France. This was the time when people had to brave the long sea voyages to go to Europe. His discovery of the country came about when he made a two-days-and-a-half stopover en route to Barcelona. A year after, he visited the country again and stayed for more than two months with the goal of
Asian New Year celebration at the Capitole, Toulouse with Hon. Consul Jeffrey Cabuay (center)
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Community
improving his medical training through his visits to Parisian hospitals and its faculty of medicine. Rizal was part of the first wave of Filipinos who went to France. He was amongst the affluent of the Philippines who can afford the expensive cost of living in Paris. They were mostly composed of intellectuals, artists and businessmen. Several waves of diaspora followed suit. The second one came from rich Filipino families fleeing the chaos brought about by the Philippine
