Peking to Paris cover art

Peking to Paris

Life and Love on a Short Drive Around Half the World

Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Peking to Paris

By: Dina Bennett
Narrated by: Katherine Dyer
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £15.31

Buy Now for £15.31

About this listen

In this thrilling road trip from "Peking to Paris", a woman tries to save her car, her marriage, and her confidence from breaking down.

In May 2007, leaving China’s Great Wall is Car 84, one of 128 antique autos racing in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. It’s guided by one Dina Bennett, the world’s least likely navigator: a daydreamer prone to carsickness, riddled with self-doubt, and married to a thrill-seeking perfectionist who is half-human, half-racecar. What could possibly go wrong?

Funny, self-deprecating, and marred by only a few acts of great fortitude, Peking to Paris is first and foremost a voyage of transformation. The listener is swept on a wild, emotional ride, with romance and adversity, torment and triumph. Starting in Beijing, Dina and her husband, Bernard, limp across the Gobi, Siberia, Baltic States, and south to Paris in a 1940 Cadillac LaSalle, while Dina nurses the absurd hope that she can turn herself into a person of courage and patience.

Writing for every woman who’s ever doubted herself and any man who’s wondered what the woman traveling with him is thinking, Dina brings the reader with her as she deftly sidesteps rock-throwing Mongolians and locks horns with Russians left over from the Interpol era - not to mention getting a sandstorm facial and racing rabbits on a curvy country road. Come along for the ride with a dashboard diva!

©2013 Dina Bennett (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Adventure Travel Africa Asia Engineering Europe France Motor Sports Travel Writing & Commentary Adventure Sports Marriage Russia China Funny Inspiring Racing

Editor reviews

Dina Bennett is a worrywart with a penchant for daydreaming - the combination of which landed her on the 35-day Peking to Paris Motor Challenge with her husband, Bernard, and a trunk full of anxiety. Bennett's worries and flights of fancy come alive in Katherine Dyer's spirited narration, which charmingly captures the young woman's formative moments (including the first time she walked, and how she fell in love with her dashing French husband) up to the 7,800-mile car race that could conceivably ruin her marriage. Funny, emotional, and transformative, Peking to Paris: Life and Love on a Short Drive Around Half the World is a travel story that will charm even the most reluctant armchair adventurer.

All stars
Most relevant
This book is perfect if you are planning a duo road trip!
Not of course with the mechanical parts but with the relationship ones!!

Great story, Dina keeps you cruising while listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Really enjoyed this book. Whinsed at some "American English" but rejoiced that I never heard the word "Acclimated".

Pity the cover photo wasn't the real car but nevertheless an enjoyable listen.

Well narrated and good story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be a feel good books. a bit more about the happenings in Europe would of been nice but obviously nothing daunting happened so it was glossed over
An enjoyable listen with the feel good factor.

Good Road Trip Story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Brilliant book. One of those stories that draws you in. One of the most entertaining travel logs I have listened to.

Fantastic!!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is obviously a funny account of the epic trip from Peking to Paris
I should have read the book instead, as by the end the narrator was irritating me with her monotone voice. With a bit more enthusiasm, I’m sure I’d have been laughing out loud.
But overall, I still enjoyed

Great story, not so good narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews