Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog Project Gutenberg 2025-06-04 Public domain in the USA. 186 Meignan, Victor 1846 1938 04031941 De Paris à Pékin par terre: Sibérie-Mongolie $aParis :$bPlon, $c1876. Laurent Vogel, Hans Pieterse, Google Books and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica)) De Paris à Pékin par terre: Sibérie-Mongolie by Victor Meignan is a travelogue written in the late 19th century. It traces an overland journey from France to Beijing via Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, and the Gobi Desert, mixing practical travel detail with reportage on places and people. Expect close observations on Siberian commerce, Russian society and bureaucracy, river-and-canal schemes versus railways, and the rigors of winter travel by sleigh. The opening of the narrative sets out the author’s aim to correct Western clichés about Siberia, highlighting its industrial hubs (like Tomsk) and rich Transbaikal goldfields, and arguing that river steamers and canals, not railways, best suit the region’s trade. He then departs Paris, passes through gloomy Berlin, and endures a vexing Russian customs inspection before arriving in Saint Petersburg, where a moonlit Neva and Francophile salons contrast with his difficulty finding a companion. Securing official letters and postal privileges, he meets the border commissary Pfaffius—whose Bouriate servant pointedly invokes his rights as a subject—attends Glinka’s La vie pour le Tzar, and moves on to Moscow in severe cold to buy proper furs. In Moscow he surveys the Kremlin, notes the custom of uncovering before the Virgin at the Spassky Gate, sketches the Orthodox past, visits the fabulously wealthy Troitsa monastery, and finally finds a capable companion in the Siberian Constantine Kokcharof. The story then shifts to Nizhny Novgorod’s bustling bazaars and the logistics of sleigh travel: the hierarchy of travel permits (podarojnaia), the meticulous packing of the sled, the behavior of the fiery little horses, and the social life of post-stations. It closes this opening stretch with the first fast stages along the frozen Volga, a night of relay stops, and a tense, watery thaw on the ice before dawn breaks through thick fog. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k11749154 20231223051009meignan 1876 FR Reading ease score: 66.8 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. fr China -- Description and travel Russia -- Description and travel Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel Mongolia -- Description and travel DK DS Text Category: Travel Writing Category: French Literature 560873 2025-07-30T07:11:37.149677 text/html 531990 2025-06-04T11:18:11 text/html 3836836 2025-07-30T07:11:46.382588 application/epub+zip 3843135 2025-07-30T07:11:39.653657 application/epub+zip 330488 2025-07-30T07:11:37.973665 application/epub+zip 4301805 2025-07-30T07:11:51.469574 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 4255480 2025-07-30T07:11:44.900630 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 507690 2025-07-30T07:11:36.156632 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 487673 2025-06-04T11:18:11 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 14922 2025-07-30T07:11:51.620597 application/rdf+xml 12416 2025-07-30T07:11:38.242624 image/jpeg 2590 2025-07-30T07:11:38.102639 image/jpeg 4877204 2025-07-30T07:11:37.270618 application/octet-stream application/zip fr.wikipedia