10 months from Istanbul to Beijing
CÉCILE CARRÉ & BRUNO Conigliano
Together since 1997
Born in Nouméa and Strasbourg
Now living in Barcelona
First kiss In the bar Requin Chagrin in the Latin Quarter in Paris
First trip together Turkey for 1 month in 1996, and then Indonesia for 3 months in 1998
You work as Architects
Married on Aix-en-Provence in July 2000
Honeymoon in 10 months from Istanbul to Beijing overland
the trip
We wanted to go to India, but not by plane, by road, to feel the change of cultures and faces little by little. Food, climate, architecture, customs, clothing, everything shifted slowly.
We left Istanbul heading east, moving closer to the land of the rising sun. Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, China, Tibet, Mongolia, Russia.
Along the way, the route changed depending on encounters with other travelers, following our instinct. There was no internet. Everything was more emotional than rational.
We crossed places that are no longer accessible: the Baluchistan Desert (eastern Iran) and others that were still wild, like northern Laos or Tibetan China. There was no fixed goal or destination, only a path that was the journey itself.
We wanted to return along the Silk Road from China, but the borders closed before our eyes after the Twin Towers attack. We came back on the Trans-Siberian, an extraordinary, long journey across the Mongolian steppe and the poorest, most remote parts of Russia. In our compartment, an American in a floral shirt under minus 10 degrees, with a bottle of vodka.
We left Beijing in the height of summer and arrived in Moscow in the middle of winter, under the lights of the Kremlin illuminating the snow.
DEBRIEF
Favourite hotel of the trip An earthen hut decorated with tribal drawings and the stars as its roof
Epic hotel breakfast A soup in a market in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Most memorable meal or dish A curry chicken in Quetta, Baluchistan desert. We couldn’t eat anything for two days because of the fire I had in our mouth.
A place you’d go back to We don’t want to go back to places but to discover new ones, and above all to finish the itinerary between Kashgar (China) and Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) through the Torugart Pass.
An underrated place All the overland border crossings: a “no man’s land” full of life, trafficking, and incredible stories.
A ritual Drawing every day for 3 or 4 hours, taking the time each thing requires.
A person you’ll always remember Gezim and David, two mirrored encounters at each end of the journey, both told us about the same book by Nicolas Bouvier, L’Usage du Monde. This book tells the story of the journey in a Fiat 4CV by Nicolas Bouvier and Thierry Vernet in the 1950s, from Paris to Kathmandu. A marvelous account. The book became an essential part of our library, and we give it to all the young people around us who set out to see the world.
Most ‘honeymooner’ thing you did We are very bad at being romantic honeymooners, we always end up at the edge of things: the edge of a country, the edge of the sea, the edge of a city. But the edge is the beginning of another untouched space, waiting to be discovered. And that is what we love, seeing what lies beyond the edge.
What made your honeymoon different than your past trips? The long stretch of time.
Wish you’d had time for Honestly, nothing. It felt like the trip was perfect just as it was.
What did you learn about each other? That we make a really good team no matter the circumstances.
Out of this journey came a book of drawings: Carnet de voyage de Noces, published by Éditions du Seuil in 2003
Favourite past trips
— Morocco, a country we adore for its people, food, and landscapes, and where we return often
— Myanmar and Ladakh with three children, for their preservation and the gentleness of their people
— Brazil, a country we didn’t expect to love so much, but that completely won us over
Travel Wish List
— The Silk Road between China and Georgia
— São Tomé and Principe
— Japan
— Any country or place where we could stay for a long time just to draw and observe, without obligations. Simply to absorb and merge with it. Like Africa, which we haven’t discovered yet.