The Three Musketeers Journey from France to Korea by car

作者: Radwa Khattab on 20 April , 2022.
类别: Contribution, East Asia, Others

(From the left) Dji-Yon François, Dji-Youn Michel, Dji-Sung Stéphane

We know that travel has seven benefits, but today we will present to you a meeting with three Musketeers, half of whom are from South Korea and the other half from France.
They live a stable life in France, but nostalgia knocked on their doors and they were missing so much their second country, Korea; So the three brothers decided to make an unusual trip, and we can say that it was a bit crazy because the way to travel from France to Korea was not by plane; It was not, of course, on foot as they told us ; It was through their travel car, and they prepared a plan for a trip full of hidden adventures and left time for the road to determine the duration of the trip .
We spoke with Stéphane Dji-Sung Philippe, the middle brother of the Three Musketeers.

What is the philosophy of your trips and what you got after every trip?
On our trip, we try our best to reach the cultural singularity of each people, each region or each country.
At a time of globalization and homogenization of many cultures, we are keen to experience what is special, specific in each place: languages or dialects, gastronomies, religions and spiritualties, traditions, architecture… everything that makes the cultures we discovered.
Of course, every trip is different, and we sometimes don’t connect with people as deeply as we wish. But in general, we could say that this journey on a human scale and over a period long enough to be immersed in the local culture is ideal for us to grow in knowledge and maturity, humanly and artistically, and to share it with people we meet.

Dji-Yon François, 27 years old, teacher of French as a foreign language. He studied anthropology. He’s passionate about cultures, traditions, spiritualties and fermented food!

Dji-Yon François, 27 years old, is teacher of French as a foreign language. He studied anthropology. He’s passionate about cultures, traditions, spiritualties and fermented food!

Do you feel Korea is real home?
We grew up in Alsace, in France, but since our mother is Korean, we are all halfblooded and tell ourselves Korean as well as we’re French. All of our mother’s side family lives in Korea and we have so many good memories with them. When we were there, we always felt at home. To our eyes, both France and Korea are home.

What you do with your brothers to let people know about Korea and Korean culture since you speaking French and English very well?
We share our trip with everybody, to the rhythm of peoples and countries we meet and discover, and the climax of all of it will be in Korea. So we wish to share Korea with our followers, since this country is in the place of honor in our documentary-series.
Besides, we often share Korean cuisine with our hosts and their families. This is a way for us to have a taste of Korea, and for us to share our culture.

Do you want to be filmed in a documentary about Korea in the future? And if it happens, it will be where in Korea and why?
Yes, we plan to film ourselves in Korea for the last episode of our documentary-series. And of course, we’ll try our best to experience each region of the peninsula, to see what is the cultural singularity of each of them.

What is your favorite place in Korea and why?
That’s a difficult question, but we could say that our favorite place is the region we know the best, where we have the most memories and where our grand-father, uncles, aunties and cousins live : Jeollanam-do, at the feet of the Wolchulsan mountains.
Stéphane also loves specifically Busan, where our Mother was born and grew up, as he does for the beautiful Jeju island. This is the place where our parents had their honeymoon.

Dji-Sung Stéphane 25 years old. He was a technical-commercial until he quitted his job to work in a regeneration project in Senegal, where he found his passion for agroforestry! He’s also a music-lover and produces electronic music.

How do you see Korea as someone who is half Korean and half French?
Korea still seems an unknown part of ourselves. When we think about Korea, there is a mixture of feelings, since we see Korea through so many faces: the homeland of our loved ones and our mother, a country in the Far East to explore, the land of our ancestors, a place where wonderful childhood memories crystallize, etc.

From which angle eye the French people see the Koreans?
When we were young children, French didn’t know Korean well. They often confuse Korea with China, or Japan, who is better known in the West.
Maybe it was a bit different in big cities, but since we grew up in the countryside, almost nobody in our town knew anything about Korea, except us.
Korea became more famous these last few years, through K-pop, K-drama, and even Korean food, which wasn’t that much available in France at the time. For example, it was almost impossible to find sweet potatoes noodles when our Mother came in France 30 years ago, while Chinese supermarket (who have the monopoly of Asian food market in France) sell a lot Korean food nowadays.
Today, from France’s perspective, we could say that Korea is often reduced to its modern and urban face: “Séoul”, BTS, industrial noodles “Gangnam style”, Korean cinema (which we like!), etc.
That’s why, as we did for every country we crossed, we’d like to share an original picture of the country, more whole, more holistic, warmer.

Being nomad, is there a place looks like Korea?
Since we experienced Korea from a countryside perspective, we sometimes saw some similarities with Korea in some very beautiful countryside places: Turkey or Greece for example on certain points. Besides, we often went to Korea in summer times when we were children, and we experienced these countries in summer too, so it may influence our impression. For Greece, it’s also because the country is surrounded by the sea and a lot of islands and mountains like Korea, and because we met such generous and hospitable people who made us feel at home, as it always was in our family’s village.

How long is the trip so far and how long is it until you reach Korea?
We started at the Eastern, in the beginning of April 2021. Our itinerary depends on the international political situation so it’s difficult for us to say precisely when we’ll arrive in Korea. We can’t really know, since it depends on the international situation. We hope it could be for the end of 2022, but it may be in 2023.

Trip to south Korea by driving you don’t think is sounds a bit crazy?
Sure, it can sound crazy. But we first thought of going there hitchhiking so, from the first idea, it’s more reasonable. We can’t of course travel from France to South Korea only by car, so we planned to take some ferries, first from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan through the Caspian Sea, and finally from Vladivostok (East of Russia) to South Korea. Now we’re waiting for Azerbaijan to get opened, maybe the May, 1st, according to what people says here. For Russia, it’s confusing, since we don’t know yet how it will go between Russia and France. If we’re stuck in Central Asia, we’ll probably sell the car there and take some planes to achieve it. We’re on our way. We didn’t achieve the journey, since we’re currently in Georgia.

Dji-Youn Michel 23 years old. He studied cinema and editing in Paris. He is passionate about photography, cinema and visual arts in general. He’s the one who supports the vision of brother's documentary-series, as a filmmaker.

Dji-Youn Michel 23 years old. He studied cinema and editing in Paris. He’s passionate about photography, cinema and visual arts in general. He’s the one who supports the vision of brother’s documentary-series, as a filmmaker.

What lesson did you learn during the trip so far, and what funny situation did you encounter?
We learned so many things during this trip, both technically and artistically, even culturally. We figured out how important it’s to conceptualize regions and countries according to their topography, to connect with them and to understand their geography, with which their history and their politics are composed. It may look simplistic, but knowledge, and specifically knowledge of history-geography, is one key to understanding this world.
A funny story: in Southeast Turkey, not far away from the Syria border, we were seeking a place to set up the tent, but the policeman told us not to stay there, and we moved from one place to another until we found a place. It wasn’t that easy, since the region is very watched by the army on the one hand, and very sandy on the other hand. Finally, we ended at a place on the border itself! It was past midnight, and as you can imagine, the guard was very surprised to see us! But after a few minutes, he became exceptionally welcoming and invited us to have tea, and to set up the tent in the small patch of grass next to his cabin. Not only did he watch over us, but he also made us breakfast for the morning! Today, he assiduously follows our documentaries and he’s always the first to comment on them on YouTube.

What was your dream before that trip and what is your next dream? What is your advice to everyone who loves Korea and Korean culture, as you are Korean?
Our dream was to live an adventure together, and we’re living it, so we’re grateful! Our next dreams are to experience deeper Korea together, then Dji-Yon would like to invest himself in a social project, Dji-Sung dreams to get a big garden, full of fruit trees from all around the world, and to continue traveling and explore the world, and Dji-Youn wants to grow up in cinema, more specifically making films about Korean mythology and ancient history.
About Korea, we could say that the best is to experience it “in real life”, going to Korea, or even developing some ties with Korean friends abroad “We miss Korea so much”.