The author of this essay analyses current publication of a source which is extremely popular among the students of archaeology, ethnology, and modern history of the Crimea. This is French Gilbert Romme’s description of his 1786 travel from Kiev to the south. The traveller collected a great deal of information about the new provinces of Russia and their residents. Until recently, researchers could only use a fragmented Russian translation by Kseniia Ratkevich published in 1941. It has been demonstrated that the 2016 publication of original source did not meet all the academic requirements. Therefore, a new edition of the original source at advanced scholarly level remains a topical task.