In Anatolia, troglodyte churches of Aksaray
Alfred de Montesquiou, already a veteran journalist at 39, has covered wars in the Middle East for Associated Press and Paris Match and was awarded the prestigious Prix Albert Londres for his covering of the Arab Spring revolts. He has been commissioned by Arte, the French German television channel, to do a series on the Silk Road which is being aired right now and until December 15.
Alfred de Montesquiou starts the trip in Venice and takes us all the way to X’ian in China
The fifteen half hour episodes are being aired every day at 5.30pm on Arte and can be watched for another month in replay. Stepping on Marco Polo’s route, Alfred de Montesquiou tells us in a lively and well informed way about the customs, the architecture and the societies of Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirghistan and China. It is a beautiful voyage through time and deserts, markets and caravanserais which were posted every forty kms on the 12 000 km road. This was the average distance covered by a horse every day.
Pictures of troglodyte houses and religious buildings, interviews of artisans and traders, illuminate this adventure with their story telling. Turkey and Iran are particularly fascinating. It took Marco Polo 26 years to travel so he could bring back spaghettis from Xinjiang. Alfred sums it up in three weeks and he is always fun to listen to. (Arte, in French and German only, until December 15)
The book of Alfred’s adventures is published by Le Chêne
The author will be signing his book on December 19 th at 7 pm at Vivienne Art Galerie, 30 galerie Vivienne, where his photographs are exhibited and for sale!
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3 Comments on “Alfred de Montesquiou takes us on a dream adventure”
Wish we could see that here! Looks fascinating. xo
Dear Sir, Alfred De Montesquiou,
My Name is Mark K. Lucas and I live in Reno, Nevada. The United States of American. I currently work at the University of Nevada-Reno. Biblioteque. Document Delivery Services.
I have finished watching your Documentary, The Silk Road. It was truly an awesome expericence watching and learning about our fabulous history, world history about the Silk Road. The entire show with the incredible scenery of all of these regions was beyond the imagination of anything that could come out of any history book. Your presentation and respect to all the peoples involved, their customs, traditions, and lively hoods show how much your production crew really cared about sharing this important revelation to the rest of the world. So glad you had this chance to do this before the COVID-19 outbreak. Thank you again for giving us, people of the world, a different view of the collective communities that surround the Silk Road. Hopefully, this will open the eyes of all people to show that we all play an important role in our world today, with trade, new innovations, modern development, and also the cultivation of our historical ancestries. Merci Beaucoup.
Bonjour Monsieur de Montesquieu.
I am living in Santa Fe, NM. My husband and I recently discovered your Silk Road documentary series on Curiosity Stream and are enjoying it and learning from it both very much. We are on episode 12, I believe, and plan to watch them all again. What a wonderful experience you are providing us.
Thank you sincerely