For the 80th anniversary of the death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, an immersive exhibition at the Air and Space Museum

For the 80th anniversary of the death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, an immersive exhibition at the Air and Space Museum

It looks like a movie theater, wonders a middle school student who came on a school trip. It is in fact a 300 m2 room half plunged into darkness that serves as the setting for this exhibition, in order to highlight the multiple facets of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, through dozens of objects.

From the start of the visit, panels line up the elements of his biography: his birth in Lyon in 1900; his first flight in Ambérieu (Ain) at the age of 12, despite his mother’s opposition; obtaining his pilot’s license during his military service in 1921; his service record for the Latécoère company, which would become Aéropostale, then in the army. “These data are a necessary appetizer for the youngest who only know “Saint-Ex” as the author of the Little Prince ” says Marion Weckerle, the curator. After this introduction, the visitor can admire a facsimile of the manuscript of South Mail – the writer’s first book -, model airplanes, posters for films retracing Saint-Exupéry’s exploits or whose screenplay is taken from one of his works. His last flight log too. Illustrated texts retrace his struggle for survival in the Libyan desert after the brutal failure of his attempt, in 1935, to reach Paris from Saigon, while an audio device allows you to listen to the reading of an extract from Twandering men. Various newspaper clippings recall that on July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a distinguished pilot and commander in the French army, disappeared in the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission intended to prepare for the landing in Provence. This is followed by accounts of the discovery of the wreck and the operations undertaken to recover the main debris.

As close as possible to the plane

Then, behind the glass cases, the key pieces appear: pieces of the fuselage and part of the landing gear of the famous Lockheed P-38 F5B Lightning. How can you not shudder when you are only a meter away from this scrap metal that served as a coffin for the Little Prince’s father and slept for more than sixty years in the depths of the Mediterranean? Marion Weckerle points out the plane’s “turbocharger cradle” and specifies: “It is with this piece, which bears the manufacturing serial number, that we were able to be certain that this was indeed the plane piloted by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.”

The end of the exhibition tells how experts managed to save these fragments from crumbling and corrosion after six decades spent in sea water. A demonstration that scientific progress can help shed light on the tragedies of history.

Similar Posts