Crispy banh mi baguettes, grand colonial facades, and chattering Francophone schoolchildren are lingering reminders of the French presence that once dominated Vietnam.

But there are darker legacies too -- in the notorious prisons that enforced foreign rule, and memorials to those slain fighting for independence.

As Vietnam marked the 80th anniversary of the declaration of independence from its European ruler with a grand parade on Tuesday, 24-year-old Huynh Nhung came to the capital, Hanoi, to take it all in.

"There are both good and bad sides," she told AFP, touring Hoa Lo Prison -- now a memorial partly dedicated to France's brutal treatment of Vietnamese colonial dissidents.

"France left a lot of pain for the country," she said, a few days before the event.

But when 40,000 soldiers

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