In the popular British quiz showQI, presenter Stephen Fry routinely asks celebrity contestants questions on science, geography or history that have surprising answers. A show aired on 20 September 2013 on BBC2 was no different.

Fry: Does the Paris–Dakar rally go from Paris to Dakar, or Dakar to Paris?

Contestant 1: Paris to Dakar.

Fry: No.

Contestant 2: Dakar to Paris?

Fry: No.

Contestant 3: Is it neither?

Fry: Yes, the Paris–Dakar rally actually takes place in South America since 2008.

Cue bemused looks all round.

Fry: The Mongol Rally, which starts in London and ends in Ulan Bator allows the drivers to go whichever way they choose. India has a Blind Man's Car Rally in which the navigators read the instructions on a Braille map across a course of forty miles. The drivers must obey the instructions given to them, even if they know they are wrong.

New heroes for ‘les années fun’

The Paris–Dakar rally, which became known as the ‘Dakar’ rally as the route changed course, is an off-road motor race that has taken place every year since 1978 (with the sole exception of 2008) and has a different itinerary for every edition, with the classic route taking motorcyclists and car and truck drivers from the French to the Senegalese capital across the Sahara desert. The early editions of the race established a pattern that was to ensure the popular success of the event, taking place annually in early January, during a post-festive period characterised by an appetite for exotic escapism among the ‘metropolitan’ French and when, crucially, the sporting calendar is generally at its most sparse. The race has incorporated iconic landmarks into its itinerary since its inception, traditionally departing from the Trocadéro, in view of the Eiffel Tower (until the start was moved to a similarly evocative site at Place de la Concorde in 1983, and then subsequently to Versailles to accommodate the increasing number of participants), and finishing on the beach at Dakar. The race generally takes place over a fortnight to three-week period, during which competitors race over 10,000 kilometres of spectacular scenery.