From the newspaper Le Matin on January 31, 1907:

What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?

I was flipping around the TV listings one afternoon a few weeks back and discovered a program titled Peking to Paris on the Book Channel. The program’s basic premise: recreate a historic race from modern-day Beijing to Paris using century-old automobiles and take along a TV crew to film the whole thing. I was hooked immediately.

The most fun appears to be meeting interesting people along the way during such a race. The least fun is likely the numerous breakdowns although crossing the border from Mongolia into Russia didn’t look to be a laugh. On a positive note, the frequent breakdowns turn into new opportunities to meet people such as a rough-looking motorcycle gang who turn out to be excellent mechanics and who also know a very skilled blacksmith who can make replacement leaf springs by hand.

The show concept is great, the narration is really delightful, and the visuals are excellent. There are four episodes in total; the first three involve getting from Bejing to the Ural mountains, halfway to Paris, and certainly the toughest half. The second half of the trip as well as the conclusion are all wrapped up in a single episode

I understand from the Wikipedia article there have been a number of recreations although none as accurate as this one. I also see there is another recreation coming up this year to commemorate the race’s centennial anniversary.

I think it would be really fun to enter such a race. Maybe someday! Anyone else find this sort of thing irresistible?

Edited January 28th: there were only four episodes total, not eight as I originally predicted.