Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 06/01) - Andre Brugiroux left France with $2 and a dream to see the world.

Forty-six years and 245 countries later, the filmmaker and best-selling author arrived in Iqaluit with a message: not only is peace possible, it's unavoidable.

It's also an oversimplified message with resounding truth.

Iqaluit resident Svetlana Lapshina calls Brugiroux's life inspirational.

"He confirmed what I believe. The best way to know oneself and humanity is to travel," says the former Ukraine resident.

Lapshina was one of a dozen people attending the Paris resident's evening talk in Iqaluit July 28. She bought a dozen copies of Brugiroux's bestseller "One People, One Planet."

Brugiroux also plans to visit Qikiqtarjuaq, Pond Inlet and Grise Fiord before heading home last this month.

The noted wanderer, now 63, began travelling at the age of 17. He insists he's a student of the world, not just a traveller.

His life of borrowed rides and tropical disease began in 1955. Brugiroux learned to speak four languages by working as a dishwasher and shoeshiner. He's been thrown in jail seven times, once in Columbia after being mistaken for a hijacker, not a hitch-hiker.

"It was a fabulous time. There were so many people on the road you had to line up to get a ride in some places," he said.

Brugiroux travelled on $1 a day for 18 years and prides himself on sleeping in ditches and bathroom floors --never hotels. The money he saved during the early years bought food and travel visas.

"I'm not interested in mileage or adventure. I'm interested in the heart of mankind," he said.

"When something talks to the heart you can't be indifferent."

In the last 28 years, he married, wrote six books and produced a movie, "The earth is but one country," based on his life.

Money from book sales and his film finances his travels.

Nunavut is his third to last stop before retiring his hitchhiking thumb. (The other locations are Niue, a tiny island in the French Polynesian group in the South Pacific and North Korea.)

Nunavut struck him as an enjoyable but uncomfortable melding of past and present.

Brugiroux plans to write two more books in his post-wandering retirement.

"I'm not saying I discovered the world. I'm saying I discovered it for myself."

He said he hopes his journey will serve as an inspiration for others.