In 1988, having built a replica of a Viking long boat, Peissel and a crew of six rowed and sailed up the river Dvina and down the Dnieper 2400 km across the Soviet Union, from the Baltic to the Black Sea; an expedition meant to recreate that of the Varangians, the founding fathers of the Russian monarchy in the 8th century.
Michel Foucault | Jean Michel Jarre | Michel Gondry | Jean-Michel Basquiat | Michel Legrand | Michel de Montaigne | Michel Houellebecq | Michel Platini | Michel Plasson | Michel Ney | Mont Saint-Michel | Michel Tournier | Michel Portal | Michel Rocard | Michel Fokine | Michel Deville | Michel Butor | Michel Berger | Jean-Michel Dubernard | Michel Rolland | Michel Polnareff | Michel Maffesoli | Michel Drucker | Michel Roux | Michel Piccoli | Michel Boyibanda | Michel Bastarache | Michel | Robert H. Michel | Michel Vieuchange |
French ethnologist Michel Peissel claims that the Himalayan marmot on the Deosai Plateau in Gilgit–Baltistan province of Pakistan, may have been what Herodotus called giant "ants".
Research by the French ethnologist Michel Peissel makes a claim that the story of 'gold-digging ants' reported by the Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC, was founded on the golden Himalayan marmot of the Deosai plateau and the habit of local tribes such as the Minaro to collect the gold dust excavated from their burrows.