Passion

Book. « Mermoz, le vrai Petit Prince »

A tribute and investigation tracing the footsteps of Jean Mermoz, a true aviation legend who, at least in part, inspired the work of his close friend Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

A tribute and investigation tracing the footsteps of Jean Mermoz, a true aviation legend who, at least in part, inspired the work of his close friend Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Jean Mermoz (1901–1936), an aviation legend alongside his illustrious comrades Saint-Exupéry, Guillaumet, and so many others to whom aviation owes much of its rise. For this book, written as a tribute, journalist Marc Menant delved into every detail of *The Little Prince*, Saint-Exupéry’s timeless classic, to uncover what it revealed about the personality and life journey of… Jean Mermoz.

A man of strong values, loyal, and bound by an extraordinary bond of brotherhood with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Jean Mermoz embodied in his own way the purity, innocence, generosity, and brotherhood so dear to *The Little Prince* and the values the book conveys. Marc Menant thus set out to investigate these similarities and the clues left by Saint-Exupéry in his masterpiece.

Perhaps starting with the name given to the Little Prince’s asteroid, “B612,” which seems to refer to the date Jean Mermoz disappeared—December 6, 1936—in the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, the aviator was piloting his Latécoère 300 Croix-du-Sud seaplane and had logged more than 8,000 flight hours. It is up to the reader to discover the other similarities noted by the author…

Book. “Mermoz, the Real Little Prince.” Author: Marc Menant. Publisher: Litos. ISBN: 2385061929.