POSTCARD N.236 - FRANCE

Postcard sent on the 12th of June; received on the 25th June 2026

Postcard image: Le Petit Prince

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Le Petit Prince, the Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s magnum opus... the first book I have the recollection of it being offered me by my father, in its Portuguese translation, of course: O Principezinho.....

And somehow, in the beginning of the current week, I felt that Saint-Ex's famous illustration of a boa digesting an elephant could be a perfect metaphor form my letterbox, for after Mr.Postman's visit, it too became immobile for the rest of the week, while trying to digest the huge load of French First Day Covers I got from Eric, and which I will be, of course, posting here these coming days.

Un gran merci, mon ami. Tu m'as bien apprivoisé....

The Little Prince is the world's most translated book after the Bible, having been published in more than 600 different languages and dialects.

The history of the Little Prince, the only living boy in asteroid B612, who ended up on Earth after  abandoning his little celestial body to escape a pretentious rose and to find a way of keeping baobabs from occupying all its surface, only to be taught by a fox that we are responsible for what we tame (sounds confusing? well, not a bit.) has been read, cherished and loved by generations of people willing to be tamed in all corners of the world  ever since it was first published, in 1943, in both French and English, by  Reynal & Hitchcock, in New York

The first French Publication would  sadly be a posthumous one, for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's had been banned from publication by the Vichy Regime. Thus, when the book was finally published in France, by Galimard, in 1946, his author had already lost his life, what sadly occurred in April 1943, during a flight in a  F5B,  a reconnaissance version of the American Lockheed P-38 Lightning, over the Mediterranean, not far from Marseille.

The 80 years of the French publication of Le Petit Prince were chosen by La Poste as one of the events and places to be honoured with stamp issues during 2026's Paris Philex  a well established stamp exhibition and competition held annually in Paris.

To this view,  La Poste issued both a 12 x "Lettre Verte" stamps booklet and a single 2,25 € (International 20g) stamp, both illustrated with images inspired by the fabulous original watercolours also authored by Saint-Exupéry, used to illustrate the book.

Two of the "Lettre Verte" stamps, cancelled with the first day postmark dated of 11JUN2026,  can be seen on the Petit Prince themed postcard Eric sent me.

The postmark featuring the portrait of the famous character superimposed on a 80 and the legend les 80 ans du Petit Prince (80 years of the Little Prince) was applied at Philex 2026, I presume.