Name: Lucien
Surname: Leroy
Date of Birth: 10 May 1867
Profession: journalist
Name: Henri
Surname: Papillaud
Date of Birth: 14 February 1867
Profession: journalist
Inspired by the English journalist couple E. R. Louden and Herbert G. Field, who left London in 1894, they decided to attempt a world tour themselves under specific conditions: to depart without a penny, finance themselves during the journey by any means without compromising their dignity as reporters and Parisians, let events and imagination determine their route, use any means of transportation their finances allowed, and take all the time necessary for a curious and useful journey, during which they would assimilate, as much as possible, the customs and habits of the countries they traveled through. At the time of departure, they did not know how they would sustain themselves, yet they managed to live in grand style thanks to the publication of their newspaper, En route.
©Vatican Apostolic Library
The two sold advertising space to generate income and distributed copies both through subscriptions and on-site sales. The first issue was published in Nice, the second in Milan, while from the third issue onward, news about the publication became more sporadic. The third issue is believed to have appeared in Rome in the spring of 1895, while the fourth was likely published in Athens and the fifth in Constantinople during the summer of that same year. In the second half of the year, the sixth issue was supposedly released in Alexandria, Egypt, in French, Arabic, Italian, Greek, and English, followed by the seventh in Cairo in French, Italian, and Greek. The year ended with the publication of the eighth issue of En route in Bombay, in French, Gujarati, and English. The ninth issue appeared on March 16 in Saigon, and the tenth on June 26 in Hanoi. The next three issues remain more elusive: the eleventh, printed in Beijing in French and Chinese—making it the first European periodical in that region—the twelfth, published in Yokohama in late 1896 in French, English, and Japanese, and the thirteenth, which appeared in San Francisco in February 1897 in French and English. The series concluded with the fourteenth issue, printed in Mexico, in which the journalists recounted all the stages of their journey, allowing us to reconstruct this incredible adventure.
On Tuesday, January 8, 1895, at 5:30 PM, Leroy and Papillaud left the offices of Le Journal on Rue de Richelieu, heading toward the Gare de Lyon. However, struck by the desire to enjoy one last Parisian show, they stopped at the Ba-Ta-Clan on Boulevard Voltaire, where the director Paulus was performing—Leroy had, in fact, written some songs for him. During the evening, Leroy sold a sketch portrait of Papillaud that he had drawn on the spot for two francs, while additional improvised sketches earned them another five francs, enough to afford dinner and purchase train tickets to Melun, departing that night.
Villefranche, Monte Carlo, and Menton. In Nice, they bought two bicycles, which they received later after they had already crossed the border into Italy. They stayed in Genoa and Milan, attended theatrical and opera performances, visited cities, and held conferences and musical evenings, sometimes alongside local artists. By March 1895, they were in Florence, then Rome, where they experienced Holy Week, then Naples, visited the archaeological sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and by the end of the month, they had reached Palermo. From there, they cycled to Catania and Messina. In Messina, they were arrested by the Carabinieri, who suspected them of being foreign spies. Once released within a few hours, they celebrated their freedom with a banquet offered in their honor by the local press.
They continued by sea to Greece, then from Athens to Constantinople, where they had multiple encounters with the Sultan. From there, they traveled to Jerusalem and then to Egypt, staying in both Cairo and Alexandria. They then set their sights on India, arriving there via Port Said and Karachi at the end of 1895. Their journey continued to Madras, Pondicherry, Colombo, and Singapore. They visited Cambodia, particularly Phnom Penh, then moved through Cochinchina, with a stop in Saigon, before traveling through Annam and Tonkin to Hanoi.
From there, they headed to China, stopping in Shanghai, Tientsin, and Beijing, before sailing to Japan, where they visited Nagasaki, Kobe, Yokohama, Tokyo, and Nikko, where they even caught a glimpse of the Emperor during a festival. Finally, via Honolulu, they reached the United States, with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and El Paso, before arriving in Mexico, where they eventually parted ways.
Papillaud remained in the Americas, first in Mexico and later in Argentina, where he worked as a journalist and newspaper editor for the rest of his life. Leroy, on the other hand, returned to France in 1898 and recounted the entire adventure in an interview published by Le Figaro on October 31, 1898.
