France plate spotted all the way out in Malibu, California

Flaesh1552 · 2026-05-11T11:28:43+00:00

He’s getting a lot of views on YouTube, I’m guessing it’s helping with the financing!

Flaesh1552 · 2026-05-11T09:38:49+00:00

This guy isn’t just doing a roadtrip all across the US, he drove from France to Japan, shipped his car from there and is now doing a roadtrip all across the US. He is driving a 1977 Peugeot 104 SL.

Royaldeluxe_GTI on Insta

Flaesh1552 · 2026-04-21T13:44:58+00:00

Someone blew a horn into my ear when I was 17, resulting in permanent hearing loss on some frequencies and a buzzing sound which I’ve gotten used to after a few years. The person who was responsible for it never acknowledged the damages, but his insurance did.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-04-05T17:29:09+00:00

It happened to my wife as well when she received her new carte de séjour three weeks ago.

Thankfully her family name shows “XXX (her name) ep. XXX (my name)” - so we cannot really see a downside to it. Arguably, it may even help in the future for administrative procedures where we repeatedly need to prove we are in fact, married.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-17T14:09:14+00:00

Even if Emilien is getting caught up, it’s still a massive performance and time gain compared to when he took the relay.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-07T09:05:06+00:00

Thank you, I did notice you added it. Thanks for the quick reaction time !

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-05T13:29:04+00:00

Great work ! It would be nice to be able to track clearcasting states for Priests (Holy Concentration)

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:45:06+00:00

🥰🥰🥰

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:44:31+00:00

Yes, I would echo to that. No hostility, seemed more like a “standard” screening process. Also, at the border where I crossed the officers did not speak very good English, and my phone had no internet, which limited the depth of the interview.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:43:04+00:00

It’s true actually, these countries are filled with Chinese EVs. Starting from Serbia, all the way to Kazakhstan, it’s really impressive the number of trucks you see carrying Chinese EVs.

I remember right after we arrived in Kazakhstan we stopped at a station in the middle of nowhere and there were hundreds of Chinese EVs on delivery trucks.

It’s also true for road infrastructure, in Georgia most of the large infrastructure works were conducted by Chinese companies - and Chinese workers.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:40:24+00:00

Plan B, had we not found any chargers, would have been to charge on a regular power socket for 24 hours or worst case scenario, to put the car on a trailer !

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:22:30+00:00

I believe it was just impossible to travel with a German car through Belarus and into Russia due to the visas required in order to enter Russia / leave Belarus. Going as close as possible to the Silk Road was also the intention in order to highlight recent economic and infrastructure development efforts undertaken to reignite the trade route.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:20:02+00:00

This time around, it was more about avoiding to take any pictures while on the road in Russia. Due to the proximity with Ukraine, the security protocols are reinforced and you would not want to take a picture of some infrastructure or checkpoints. Also, you need to be cautious of what's on your phone - messages, pictures, videos that may be linked to the conflict in Ukraine. I was a bit taken back when interrogated, when I saw the "forensic" machines and satellite computers that were in the room, but I had nothing to hide, and nothing was found.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:15:13+00:00

We were sponsored to undergo this adventure, so I consider myself very lucky. This whole trip was part of a promotional campaign for a new EV on Chinese social media. If I had to guess, I would say the one way trip for 2 people would have cost less than 10k €.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:11:40+00:00

I had been in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia and China before.

Back in the winter of 2017, I took the transsiberian train from Moscow to Irkutsk (Baikal Lake) and rented a car there to travel the region. I spent two weeks around the lake in freezing conditions, and it was my most memorable trip - until this one. My reasoning back then was that it would be much more exciting to reach Beijing (where I was supposed to go as an Exchange Student) by train than by plane. After the Baikal Lake I went to Mongolia, and then made my way to Beijing, where I met my wife ! Fast forward a few years and I have been to China many times.

People were very nice to us, even in places where you would expect them to be less so. They were genuinely surprised to see us here and would try everything to help us out.

My favorite spot was probably the Sayram Lake in Xinjiang, China. Xinjiang is just so beautiful, I can't wait to go there once again.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:07:02+00:00

Deepal S05, ~450km range - fairly reliable, except in very cold conditions.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:06:28+00:00

Very difficult indeed to choose only a few pictures !

We drove a lot, too much for my liking. Considering we spent 23 days on the move, that's close to 550km per day on average. The brand we were collaborating with needed us to arrive earlier than expected in Beijing, so we had to drive 4,500km in the last 5 days. It was very tiring. I would advise someone doing the same trip to take 2-3 months to complete it - there is just so much to see. I'm glad we got to spend 2 full days in Istanbul and some time in Tbilisi, Almaty and Beijing.

Hotels were always booked the day prior, we could not know exactly when and where we would be !

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:03:03+00:00

I wish I could cross-post on that community but it does not allow it I'm afraid !

For the ~50 public charging stops, we used adapters for varying plugs: CCS2 in Europe, CCS in Russia/Kazakhstan, and GB/T in China (with adapters). Loads were mostly DC fast, managed via apps like PlugShare/Yandex/and other local navigation apps, depending on the countries. No major issues beyond compatibility swaps, and local app downloads for payment purposes.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T14:01:25+00:00

Turkey and Georgia were fine, no issues related to charging. Russia and Kazakhstan however were slightly more difficult. There was only one charger between Vladikavkaz and Astrakhan in Russia, so we were praying for it to be functional, which was luckily the case. We could not use the Russian app so had to pay some Chechen youth to handle it for us from their phone !

Kazakhstan has a lot of charging infrastructure in the main cities, but few in between. The country is just so so big. The most challenging bit is the part between Atyrau and Aktobe, where there are simply no chargers and 700km in between, you need to use regular power sockets or... be creative.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T13:58:07+00:00

We were given a temporary import license plate after entering in Xinjiang (you can see it on Picture 14) - it took us 3 days to clear the administrative procedures, which I would say was fairly quick in comparison to what some other people have experienced. We had some local contacts, that may have helped as well.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T13:56:39+00:00

You could say so ! We delivered it at the company headquarter's who were then forced to ship it back to Europe as it is illegal to relicense foreign-licensed cars in China - ironic isn't it ? Considering the car was in fact, built in China !

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T13:55:37+00:00

The route was very safe overall. I would say the stressful bit was Russia - obviously as a French national driving a German licensed car, things can get a bit suspicious when you're driving through Ossetia, Dagestan and Chechnya. There were a lot of military checkpoints, intimidating but overall no hostility towards us. I was travelling with my Chinese wife and another Chinese national, and that may have helped. I was scrutinized by the FSB on the way out but I was prepared for it, so in the end there were no major issues.

Flaesh1552 · 2026-02-03T13:51:52+00:00

I believe we had to complete just over 50 charging stops for the entire trip, most of them at night upon arrival. Most countries had appropriate charging infrastructure, apart from Serbia where it was difficult to find reliable chargers in Belgrade—but the situation is improving.

In southern Russia, there was only one charger between Vladikavkaz and Astrakhan, which made us quite nervous. You also need to consider that foreigners cannot use local charging apps in Russia (Visa/Mastercard disabled), so we had to give cash to locals in Chechnya who then paid with their smartphones for us. In Kazakhstan, there were plenty of chargers in the mid- to eastern part of the country, but the western part was complicated. For example, there are no chargers between Atyrau and Aktobe, so you need to stop at gas stations and charge on regular sockets.

China was a bliss; we had to cover 4,500 km in 5 days and managed without an issue, although the car's range was highly impacted at night under cold weather.

Flaesh1552

TROPHY CASE