Marguerite Duras, a French playwright and novelist born in 1914 in Gia Dinh (Saigon), lived in the town of Sa Dec along the Mekong from 1928 to 1932. As a young schoolgirl at age 15, she met Huynh Thuy Le, 27, the son of a wealthy Chinese family and they had a love affair which she later wrote about in the novel, The Lover. His family forced him to marry a Chinese girl and Marguerite moved to France when she was 17.
This house was apparently where Huynh lived with his family. It is a Sino-French design with intricate interior woodwork and the original French floor tiles.
In the house today, photos of Huyhn Thuy Le's family and Marguerite Duras herself hang in the entrance hall.