COVER N. 734 - FRANCE

Postmark: Les 80 ans du petit Prince - le Petit Prince - 80 - 1er Jour La Poste Paris 11.06.2026

Posted on the 11th June;  Received on the 25th June 2026

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The second "Le Petit Prince" themed cover that Eric sent me was also an FDC, featuring the 2.25€ stamp illustrated with a recreation of Saint-Exupéry's magnificent character.

Un grand Merci, Eric.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is mainly remembered as a writer  and as one of the pioneers of French Intercontinental airmail services, (Africa and later South America) through his collaboration with Aéropostale, the  company founded, with that aim in mind, in  the wake of the first world war, by aircraft  manufacturer (mainly flying-boats and seaplanes) Pierre-Georges Latécoère, as “Société des Lignes Latécoère”, which would  be rebranded in 1927,as “Compagnie Générale Aéropostale”.

The story of Aéropostale is an epic odyssey in itself  and several of its pilots would be forever remembered as examples of tenacity, endurance and  courage, so many were the hurdles, challenges and life threatening situations they had to overcome while carrying mail in their planes over the Andes or the African deserts.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Jean Mermoz, Henri Guillaumet, probably the most famous of all the Aéropostale pilots. They all lived a life devoted to aviation.... so much so that they all died while flying... Saint-Ex over the Mediterranean Sea while on a photo reconnaissance flight in 1943; Mermoz in 1936 over the South Atlantic, while crossing it from Senegal to Brazil and Guillaumet also shot down over the Mediterranean, in 1940.

Saint-Ex's own experience with accidents was instrumental in his writing of the Little Prince, for the plot draws on the situation he went through when crashing in the Sahara desert during what was supposed to be a record flight between Paris and Saigon, in 1935. Hhe and his co-pilot spent 5 days in the desert, with almost nothing to drink, being finally rescued by a Bedouin who happened to be passing close by.

80 years past the publication in France of his most beloved book, on 11JUL2026, La Poste once again decided to honour this man of many talents, with a 2,25 € stamp with a digital recreation of  the little boy who tamed a fox, originally drawn in ink and painted in watercolour, which sits on many a bookshelf across the whole world.