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Acclaimed journalist Bernard Ollivier begins his epic journey on foot across the Silk Road. Upon retirement at the age of sixty-two, and grieving his deceased wife, renowned journalist Bernard Ollivier felt a sense of profound emptiness: What do I do now? While some see retirement as a chance to cash in their chips and settle into a comfy armchair, Ollivier still longed for more. Searching for inspiration, he strapped on his gear, donned his hat, and headed out the front door to hike the Way of St. James, a 1400-mile journey from Paris to Compostela, Spain. At the end of that road, with more questions than answers, he decided to spend the next few years hiking another of history’s great ro...
Acclaimed journalist Bernard Ollivier continues his epic journey across Persia and Central Asia as he walks the length of the Great Silk Road. Walking to Samarkand is journalist Bernard Ollivier’s stunning account of the second leg of his 7,200-mile walk from Istanbul, Turkey, to Xi’an, China, along the Silk Road--the longest and perhaps most mythical trade route of all time. Picking up where Out of Istanbul left off, Ollivier heads out of the Middle East and into Central Asia, grappling not only with his own will to continue but with new, unforeseen dangers. After crossing the final mountain passes of Turkish Kurdistan, Ollivier sets foot in Iran, keen on locating vestiges of the silk t...
Bernard Ollivier pushes onward in his attempt to become the first person to walk the entire length of the Great Silk Road. “A gripping account. More than just a travel story—this is a quest for the Other.”—Alexis Liebaert, L’Événement Picking up where Walking to Samarkand left off, Winds of the Steppe continues the astonishing tale of journalist Bernard Ollivier’s 7,200-mile walk from Turkey to China along the Silk Road, the longest and most mythical trade route of all time. Taking readers from the snows of the Pamir Mountains to the backstreets of Kashgar—a Central Asian city that could be the setting for One Thousand and One Nights—to the Tian Shan Mountains to the endles...
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I spent a long time staring out the window. I had many doubts about my ability to complete the journey, but I was determined to go. I had two full lives left, and I was not ready to end them yet. #2 I yearned for slowness and moments of silence. I wanted to stop and admire eyes rimmed with kohl, the flash of a woman’s leg, or a misty meadowland immersed in dreams. I wanted to eat bread and cheese sitting in the grass, nose to the wind. #3 I was finally headed out onto the paths of silence and dreams. I had been planning this trip for three months, and I was ready to leave nothing to chance. I was hoping to leave as little to chance as possible. #4 The Venetians were dumbfounded when the three men returned in 1271. It had been thought that they were dead, and their inheritance had been divided up. Marco told of the wonders he had seen twelve thousand kilometers away, cities with millions of inhabitants.
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I had been on three flights before boarding the bus to Erzurum: Paris–Istanbul, Istanbul–Ankara, and finally Ankara–Erzurum. I was comfortably strapped in my seat when I looked down and watched as the landscapes, cities, and villages raced by. I wanted to get out and walk. #2 I set out from Istanbul on the first leg of this journey in April 1999. I was excited and happy to be walking the world, and I had high expectations for the trip. But my joyful mood was dampened when I was attacked by Kangals and people, and when I was sick and had to be evacuated. #3 I’m setting out in May, so most of my journey will take place during the summer. I’ll have to cross three of Central Asia’s hottest deserts, each one inhabited by friendly little critters like cobras, scorpions, and tarantulas. #4 I was determined to enjoy the journey, no matter what. I was getting on in years, and I had no idea if my health would hold up as it had in the past. I was afraid of solitude, but I wanted to experience it.
After trekking nearly 7,500 miles, from Istanbul, Turkey to Xi’an, China, French travel writer Bernard Ollivier thought he had put the Silk Road behind him—enough for a retiree to rest on his laurels! But that was before meeting his now-partner-in-life Bénédicte Flatet. Why, she asked, hadn’t he set out from France? After all, the city of Lyon was once Europe’s silk capital. Now, at seventy-five years old, Ollivier decides to lace up his walking boots and head out to complete his Silk-Road journey, once and for all: 1,900 miles, from Lyon to Istanbul. Only this time, he won’t be alone. Flatet has long yearned to hike side-by-side with Ollivier, so the couple sets out together . ....
Tout va mal. Dans les fermes, les paysans tuent leurs sols et sont tués parfois eux-mêmes par le glyphosate. La plupart de ceux qui échappent au cancer travaillent pour rien. Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes ces paysans désespérés qui se suicident? Dans les villes polluées et les entreprises, le burn-out fait des ravages. Pourtant, dans une ferme blottie au milieu des bois de Sologne, la résistance s’organise. Une quarantaine d’hommes et de femmes, presque tous venus des cités polluées jusqu’à l’asphyxie, abandonnent leur CDI et la sécurité de l’emploi, avec une ambition : faire pousser des légumes bios sur un sol nettoyé du poison chimique qu’on y a déversé, nou...
Bernard Olivier pensait en avoir fini avec la route de la Soie. Douze mille kilomètres à pied, de la Turquie à la Chine, cela suffit pour un retraité ! C'était compter sans sa compagne Bénédicte Flatet, qui s'étonne qu'il ne soit pas parti de France. Et, à soixante-quinze ans, le voici de nouveau sur les routes pour les trois mille kilomètres qui manquaient entre Lyon et Istanbul. Un parcours, marqué notamment par l'histoire tragique des Balkans, qu'il n'accomplira pas, cette fois, en solitaire, mais en couple. Quel cadeau de Bernard Olivier à ses lecteurs que ce quatrième volume de Longue marche ! Car ce récit, complété de courts textes de Bénédicte Flatet, a le charme des premières fois. Le célèbre voyageur nous invite à découvrir notre propre passé autant que celui de nos voisins. Son appel à plus de fraternité est aussi une magnifique déclaration d'amour.
The volume explores diverse aspects of French-language travel writing. Arranged chronologically by topic, the essays cover the medieval Anglo-Norman story of the Irish traveller Saint Brendan's fantastical visit to hell; the sixteenth-century French expeditions to Florida; the seventeenth-century Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique septentrionale de M. de la Sale mises au jour par le chevalier Tonti, 1697; the eighteenth-century Histoire générale des voyages by l’abbé Prévost; the eighteenth-century Impressions d' Orient et d'Arabie written in French by the Polish count Waclaw Seweryn Rzewuski; nineteenth-century tales of travel in Algeria by the orientalist painter Eugène Fromentin; early twentieth-century travel narratives by the modernist Blaise Cendrars; the 1936 visit to the Soviet Union by Louis-Ferdinand Céline and André Gide, odyssean thematics in the late twentieth-century work of Nobel prize winner Patrick Modiano; the thematics of nomadism in the twentieth-century writing of Albert Memmi, and the thematics of travel in works by Bernard Ollivier, Rachid Bouchareb, Fatou Diome, Christine Montalbetti, Marie Ndiaye and Emmanuel Lepage.
In this Journey to Microbial Worlds we present the diversity of microorganisms, from the state of fossil microbes in Archaean age rocks to the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. This volume discusses the extremophiles living in harsh environments (from our anthropocentric point) and describes them in considerable detail. Some chapters also review topics such as symbiosis, bacterial luminescence, methanogens, and petroleum-grown cells. The final chapters of this book shed new light on astrobiology and speculate on extremophiles as candidates for extraterrestrial life. All chapters are updated to the latest research level.