13,000 km on foot from Annecy to Shanghai

Where did this slightly crazy idea of ​​reaching Shanghai on foot come from?

It started from a completely banal discussion at Loïc’s house. We talked about adventure in the broad sense, without getting involved in it. We started dreaming of a big project, the craziest one we could imagine. So it was to go on foot to China.

We fell in love with this idea and started planning. A week later, we called back to say that we were still thinking about it… We decided to see if it was really feasible.

The “Airplane Mode” adventure was born in November 2023. We resigned in January 2024 to stop working at the end of May 2024. We kept three months full-time to prepare the project, enjoy our loved ones and test the equipment.

It was a short deadline, but so much the better! We felt a kind of pressure before the start… In the end, we were relieved to start for good. At some point, you have to agree to confront what you don’t know.

What did slow walking teach you?

What we love about doing everything on foot is the smoothing out of differences between cultures and countries. By plane, we are teleported to another world overnight. On foot, we observe thousands of small changes in behavior, faces, landscapes, languages… It therefore seems much less distant from our own societies.

We see how everything is fragmented, but at the same time connected. We even sometimes felt at home thanks to this gradual transition. Looking back, we realize the distance traveled, but at the time, we never felt that feeling of being torn away that we can have with other means of transport.

By moving slowly, we also understand the territories and their histories better. We enjoy an exciting reading of the world, full of details that we don’t usually pay attention to.

What kind of details are you thinking about?

One of the most obvious examples is food. When we approach a border, we see the cuisine evolve little by little. We then understand the exchanges that took place between the populations.

While walking, we mainly eat local. We don’t just cross tourist areas, we mainly pass through small villages, places where no one stops. This is where we meet the real populations, where we discover the heart of cultures, not just their surface.

Across the countries you crossed, did you feel any worry or hope in the face of ecological issues?

Yes, clearly. We passed through areas directly affected by the ecological crisis, notably near the Aral Sea. It was almost dried up during the Soviet period, when the tributaries were diverted to irrigate cotton fields. Result: the sea has lost more than 90% of its surface.

We passed places where we still see the old ports, the old lighthouses in the middle of the desert. It’s impressive, and it has had a huge impact on local populations, especially fishermen, who lost everything.

We also crossed many areas subject to extreme conditions. In the steppes, for example, it can be over 45°C in summer and drop to -30 in winter. We realize how fragile these regions are, and how the people who live there are already facing the consequences of climate change.

You say you are not activists, but your actions speak for themselves. How has this experience changed your way of consuming?

What we mean by this is that everyone can do their part by changing the way they consume. For eight years, we have been traveling without an airplane and we have become vegetarians.

Thanks to this project, we want to show that it is still possible to write adventure stories that can be done without a plane. We left Annecy because our parents live there, so it was a logical starting point for us. We want to show that you can have a real adventure just by leaving home. Even if we have gone very far, obviously (laughs)! No need to go all the way to China to have incredible experiences; you just need to take the time to favor slower, more grounded ways of traveling.

What has this frugal mode of transportation taught you about your real needs?

There is a saying among walkers: “What we carry is the weight of our fears.” At the beginning, we always take too many things “just in case”, then we quickly realize that we only need the bare minimum: a fleece, a pair of pants, two underwear, two pairs of socks…

We have learned to live very well with very little. We wash less, we share equipment, we avoid duplication, we ask for help from those around us. We took a computer which we ended up returning: the telephone was more than enough. Carrying your own things requires you to make choices, and it’s an incredible feeling of freedom to tell yourself that you don’t need much to feel good.

As the trip progressed, we got lighter and lighter, even our towel ended up cut in half! At the end of each week, we look at what we didn’t use, and we remove it from the bag. We went from 12kg at the start to just over 6kg today, not including food and water. For the winter, we will just add something to keep warm.

What meeting marked you?

In Türkiye, we met a Franco-Turkish gentleman who helped us enormously. We had just arrived at a restaurant in the middle of a snowstorm, and he spotted us by hearing our French. Without hesitation, he paid for a hotel and invited us to his home on our way. Two days later, he served as our guide in the region, introducing us to his family and the local culture.

At that time we also had a problem with our shoes getting stuck in customs, and he insisted on buying us new ones. For walkers, it was the greatest gift: he arrived like an angel just when we needed him.

Turkey marked us with this incredible hospitality: almost impossible to walk for an hour without being offered food or tea. Over three months, we only slept in a tent three times. The rest of the time, people opened their homes, schools or mosques to us so that we could be warm.

Is there a spiritual dimension to your approach, even if it was not initially planned?

Yes, definitely. Walking, over time, has something very meditative about it. After a while, we no longer even think about the fact that we are walking: the mind calms down, we spend a lot of time alone with ourselves. It’s a state that we rarely find in daily life, and that’s what feels good. These are real moments of reflection and contemplation, just admiring what we have before our eyes. It is a form of moving meditation.

Afterwards, we are not alone all the time either: we have been walking for over a year, so there are also moments with music, podcasts, or discussions between us when we walk side by side. However, there are always these suspended times to discuss internally and meditate.

Are you already imagining a new project?

No, for the moment we have no plans. Once we arrive in Shanghai, we will mainly try to return to France again without a plane, therefore by train or by boat.

More than our physical state, we expect to assess our psychological state upon arrival. Will we want to go back? We cannot predict. There are just two things we are sure of: we will neither return by plane nor on foot. Afterwards, we remain open to lots of opportunities.