Le Tour du Monde Avec 5 Dollars

I bought my grandmother’s travelogue, Le Tour du Monde avec 5 Dollars, on French eBay last week. The publisher only made 6,000 copies in the first and only printing (in 1954), so I’m going to try to translate it here, page by page.

The authors’ bios are printed in the front along with a photo of the two women in their mid-20s, above this:

Christiane Zeebroek

I was born in Brussels on March 4, 1925, to Belgian parents, and I did my secondary school studies there. My parents were inveterate campers; my two brothers and I spent all the vacations of our childhood under a tent.  Later, my father built a trailer and, in 1940, as the war was escalating, we used it to escape. For three months, we lived like veritable Bohemians, criss-crossing France with no idea what tomorrow might bring. Perhaps it is these experiences that gave me my first taste of adventure.

After returning to Belgium, I continued my studies and, in 1946, my father sent me to the US where I did a course in commercial administration at the University of California, Los Angeles for a year.

Returning in September 1947, I left for Paris where I tried to find a job, but could only get by doing technical translations. In March 1948, I returned to Brussels and worked for a year in my father’s company. In October 1949, Paris beckoned again, and I left for a second time. A few months later, in March 1950, I met Coreige and decided immediately to participate in the world tour.

Marielle Carre

I was born in Lyon in the 20th century. That’s about as much as one can divulge about her age when she’s older than twenty-five.

In the first days of my infancy, I got to know trains, frontiers, and travel. Between that tender age and seven, I had already crossed the Mediterranean four times and spent time in five foreign countries including Egypt, where I returned when I was 10.

Having to attend school made me put my travel demon to sleep until I was old enough to enter college, where I took English as a pretext to go and travel again. England unlocked my desire to travel, and I still don’t know what country will close it.

I am now returning to Sweden. The visit to this beautiful country is well worth a few weeks of washing dishes…