Planet Ride teams up with Peugeot for the “Django Adventure”: Paris to Vietnam by scooter

Paris, August 25, 2016 — Planet Ride, the home of motorized roadtrip travel since 2014, announced the launch of the “Django Adventure” alongside Peugeot Motocycles and Total. The concept is simple and ambitious: two young adventurers set out on a three‑month ride to cover around 13,000 km across 13 countries, piloting two Peugeot Django 125cc scooters. After months of preparation, departure was scheduled for August 29, 2016.

A 13,000 km scooter roadtrip—leaving Paris on August 29, 2016

The starting gun was set for 11:00 a.m., August 29, 2016, from a landmark address for French motor culture: Peugeot’s showroom on Avenue de la Grande Armée, Paris.

Designed by Planet Ride with local partners and refined with the riders themselves, the route aimed for a balance of symbolism and feasibility on 125cc machines. The plan: ride from Paris to Istanbul, then continue from Bombay (Mumbai) to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). For safety reasons, a flight would bypass parts of the Middle East—an important reminder that even the most poetic long-distance roadtrip still requires hard decisions on risk management.

From southern Vietnam, the team planned to head north along the country’s eastern seaboard toward Hanoi, with an expected arrival around mid‑November 2016. That’s nearly three months of riding—long enough for routines to settle in (fuel stops, daily maintenance, weather windows), and for the road to become a real working rhythm rather than a single heroic push.

A modern “remake” of a 1956 Peugeot scooter raid

The Django Adventure echoed a lesser-known chapter of French adventure history. In 1956, two French naval petty officers—Michel Vaslin and Serge Cracuin—completed a Saigon-to-Paris raid on stock 125cc Peugeot scooters. They left April 21 and reached Paris on August 25, crossing what were then listed as Cambodia, Siam, India, Iran, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Italy. The reliability detail that still turns heads: one puncture for 17,000 km.

The 2016 project aimed to replay that spirit in reverse—Paris to Saigon—with the same displacement, a vintage-inspired scooter silhouette, and the same idea that distance is less about engine size than about preparation and consistency.

Meet the riders: Samuel Felice & Ambroise Prince

Samuel Felice (25) and Ambroise Prince (26) were not “influencers” looking for a backdrop; they were professional cameramen and reporters, passionate about roadtrip travel and vintage vehicles. Discovering the 1956 raid was their trigger: history didn’t need to stay in archives—it could be revisited on the road, with today’s tools and a documentary mindset.

They reached out naturally to Planet Ride and Peugeot to structure what is often the difference between a dream and a departure date: routing, permissions, timing, and support.

“It’s a childhood dream! Imagine… travelling the world in freedom, smiling, with that wild urge to escape. We want to believe the roadtrip and travel can be an antidote to the pains of modern societies.”
— Samuel Felice, lead rider

Planet Ride x Peugeot: backing the dream with real logistics

Planet Ride, specialized in motorized expeditions worldwide, mobilized for six months to help build the route and make the ride realistically doable. Beyond the headline numbers, long-distance scooter travel lives in the details:

• Daily cadence: on 125cc scooters, planning “hero days” back-to-back is what breaks trips. A sustainable pace is built around steady riding blocks, regular breaks, and time for maintenance.
• Road reality: even on “main routes,” surfaces can shift fast—urban congestion, mountain switchbacks, broken pavement, rain ruts. A 125cc scooter rewards anticipation and smooth riding more than speed.
• Fuel & uptime: small engines mean frequent stops; it becomes an advantage—more chances to hydrate, reset focus, and keep fatigue from stacking.
• Offline planning: border regions and rural stretches can mean patchy coverage; riders typically carry offline maps and redundant navigation habits for continuity.

Planet Ride’s pro tip: when you’re building a multi-country roadtrip, don’t plan days by distance alone. Plan by friction—border crossings, big-city exits, mountain weather, and road conditions. Two days with the same kilometers can feel radically different in real riding time.

13 countries, a filmed adventure—shared day by day

As working cameramen, the two riders planned to travel with on-board cameras to document the ride in real time. The promise was immersion: day-by-day storytelling, not just a highlight reel—because a three-month roadtrip is also the accumulation of small moments: a late arrival, a perfect morning light, a mechanic’s gesture, a headwind that changes everything.

The story didn’t end with 2016: the next edition was already announced, with the dedicated website mentioned in the original release: Django Adventure.

À savoir aujourd’hui

This article reflects a 2016 announcement. The core idea—long-distance travel on lightweight scooters, supported by structured routing and logistics—remains true. What must be checked before replicating a similar roadtrip today: current security context on transit corridors, border requirements, and local regulations by country, which can change quickly.