Sur la Route de la soie, chroniques d'un sexagénaire en autonomie complète

I want to go to Pathra, the temple town, this afternoon. The boss knows a taxi driver who can get here really quickly. The distance isn’t too far, but we’re moving slowly behind lots of trucks that keep stopping. The temples of Pathra are right by the road, out in the countryside, surrounded by rice fields.

This trip had been on my mind for about fifteen years. But the discomfort of overnight stays, the difficulty of communication, and the prices of the few car rentals kept making me postpone the project. Then, things finally started to fall into place—I told myself, now’s the time! The preparations took longer than usual; the destination is still far from mainstream.

This travel journal summarizes a trip taken in March to Argentine and Chilean Patagonia. It starts in El Calafate and ends in Ushuaia.

No hotels booked (well, just the first one), no visits planned, just a flight ticket bought three weeks earlier. No guidebook, no app—just the urge to explore southern Turkey and Cappadocia, whose images and the chance to stretch my legs had really caught my eye.

The deep worries from the day before quickly faded after the first few kilometers, starting from Vézelay. With, as always at the beginning of a long-distance hike, that strange feeling of being like a child learning to walk.

When you're prepping for a trek in Scotland, the Norwegian fjords, or the Icelandic highlands, you often spend hours hunting for the best jacket. It’s a logical reflex, but once you're out there, you quickly realize your upper body isn’t the whole story.

This autumn 2025, I’m off on my 11th trip to Japan. I’ve neglected the south for too long, so like last year, it’s my main destination. After the 2017 and 2024 travel journals, I’m heading to the Japan most tourists don’t see—all by public transport, of course.

After a pretty disastrous weather-wise stay in Gran Canaria, we’re hoping this time the sun will show up in Puglia. It’s not a sure thing since the weather’s been pretty rough across Europe in early May.

After the summer of 2022 left me with a sense of unfinished business, here I am back in Swedish Lapland for the summer of 2024, ready to attempt the Sarek crossing again—and this time, to tackle part of the Kungsleden as well.

Otherwise, what’s the deal with the American West in February?... A gamble. Let’s just say it’s Russian roulette since we’re not arriving during peak weather season. That’s why we pushed our transportation and accommodation to hook up and give birth to a little camper van—so we can stay ultra-flexible against any weather whims. We’ll be roaming around in Kara the van with our only motto: "Follow the sun!"

It's hard not to be charmed. The historic center is compact, so you can wander around, get lost (well, sort of—it's on a grid layout ;)), all on foot or by bike. There's plenty to keep you busy for several days if you want to take your time and slow down a bit.

Hi there! I’m sharing a sketched-out stroll—completely subjective, absolutely non-exhaustive, and totally personal since it’s based on my own drawings. I put this travel journal together after I got back at the end of 2024, mostly with felt-tip pens and pencils, plus a few collages.

My girlfriend Christelle and I have chosen South Africa for our first trip to Southern Africa, focusing on safaris. We hesitated for a long time between this and a Cape Town/Kruger combo.

On this forum, I shared my first trip to Tunisia from mid-February to early March (voyageforum.com/...en-direct-d11460662/), a trip I enjoyed so much that six weeks later, I’m back in Tunisia for a full 15 days.

This was my first time returning to Japan since the COVID lockdown. My trips are always intense. We're not here to relax. We're here to explore, mingle with locals, be welcomed into associations and museums, and discover things most people wouldn’t even suspect exist on the other side of the world.

Here we go, the big day has finally arrived. A trip eagerly awaited by the whole family (my two kids, my husband, and me). To keep it short, we left Nice and arrived in Namibia on June 25, 2025, then left again on the 21st—so four weeks later.

All aboard our tuk-tuk! Yes, you read that right: a real tuk-tuk, a tiny, colorful, rattling box on wheels that putters along at a snail’s pace. The idea? Well, first off, Sri Lanka and its winding roads leading to vast expanses of lush nature are *perfect* for this kind of ride. And since it’s one of only two countries in the world that let foreigners rent and drive these mini speedsters, we’re gonna crisscross the island behind the wheel of our rolling two-square-meter adventure.

Hey everyone! We see some amazing plans—and also posts that go unanswered despite being for pretty popular destinations. We want to liven things up to help you travel more often with travel buddies and in total safety. Let us know what you're missing!

There’s a region in the United States that stands apart—deeply American yet surprisingly familiar.

My wife is asking for San Francisco and stuff we haven’t seen yet... so I’ve decided to skip the big parks and head for some unlikely spots.

So, off we go on a somewhat adventurous trip with three domestic flights (two on the first day and one on the last day), two overnight bus rides to make short hops, several car rentals, the services of multiple drivers to improve travel comfort, and even a tour operator for crossing the Salar...

This short stop in Doha is part of a longer trip. It lets us break up a flight to the Seychelles.

Last February, I took an overland trip using "public transport" from France to southern Senegal via Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Mauritania.

We’re going to have our hot-air balloon baptism over the Teotihuacan site and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon! We had to give up on this experience about a dozen years ago in Myanmar, over the temples of Bagan, for budget reasons. In 2019, we were supposed to do it over the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, but the unpredictable weather (too much wind) didn’t allow the flight to go ahead. So this year, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

New landscapes, a radically different climate, unknown dishes... Is it really surprising that I associate all these elements with the urge to travel?

From March 27 to 29, 2026, the Occ'ygène festival returns to the MEETT in Toulouse. My Atlas / Voyage Forum and Les Rencontres Voyageurs are welcoming Cimalp as a partner for this year's event.

This is a trip of about a month (from September 3, 2025, to October 4, 2025), or rather a part of that trip. This part matches the title exactly: an opera festival in Verona (one evening) and the Dolomites in the Veneto region.

Some trips are born twice.

Ours was supposed to happen in 2020. Everything was ready: the itinerary, the flight tickets, the hotel reservations and Machu Picchu, the rental car, the dreams of high altitudes and wide-open spaces. And then the world stopped.

For Avenue Bourguiba at nightfall, I wouldn’t say it was deserted—far from it! There were *so* many cats! During the day, you don’t see them much on this avenue. I think they’re scared off by the people and traffic, but in the evening, they come out—it’s incredible how many cats there are in Tunis!

Hello everyone,

Previously, I shared a trip report/safari in southern Tanzania in June 2024, in the Mikumi and Selous reserves. This time, still in southern Tanzania, I invite you to join us in the Ruaha Reserve.