What you don't yet know about the thousand lives of "Saint-Ex"

Antoine de Saint Exupéry in 1935. -

• 120 years after the birth of Saint-Exupéry, Toulouse is hosting a major interactive exhibition on the life of the pilot-writer.

• It can be seen at l'Envol des Pionniers, in the very hangars where the Aéropostale pilots worked.

• Above all, it offers, notably through original objects, to discover lesser-known aspects of the personality of the author of The

  Little Prince

  .

"Our second home".

This is how Olivier d'Agay, grand-nephew of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, describes Toulouse and the Montaudran track where it all began for the pilot, inseparable from the writer whose stories he largely fed.

On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of “Saint-Ex”, L'Envol des pionniers, the place of memory dedicated to the Aéropostale adventure, delves into his life, with a thousand facets, through a very aesthetic original exhibition which has the particularity of opening at the same time in Lyon, the birthplace of the pilot-writer.

The Toulouse section of “A Little Prince among men”, deployed at the exact spot where Saint-Ex operated its first flight for the Latécoère company, obviously gives pride of place to the pilot.

The scenography of the exhibition - Tempora

By following him from his first pedal strokes on a winged bicycle, then on an improbable prototype airplane in adolescence, or in the life-size Salmson 2A2, reproduced in life size, from his military service, enthusiasts will sweep the big ones at the same time. often hectic hours of aeronautics.

They will also discover an intrepid test and raiding pilot, sometimes to the point of insolence.

All with what has become “the leg” of the Flight of the Pioneers, these actors in period outfits, famous pilots or mechanics, who hail you into the hangar to better captivate you.

Personal items and giant sculptures

Sentimental fetishists will focus on authentic pilot's gloves, on the multitude of documents, professional or private, annotated by the hand of the writer.

On this copy of

, autographed.

Or on the piece, fished off the coast of Marseille and then restored, of the famous Lockheed from the fatal flight of July 31, 1944.

The most curious will discover the man in the world, faithful in friendship, lover of beautiful women and obviously an avid smoker.

The humanist journalist also and the man of cinema.

Even more astonishing the inventor so precious to his corporation with his plans and cobbled together parts that the National School of Civil Aviation (Enac) has just awarded him a posthumous engineering diploma.

The sculptures of the artist Arnaud Nazare-Aga, after the drawings of Saint-Ex in the Little Prince.

- H. Menal - 20 Minutes

Finally, those who have kept their child's soul can, with their family, almost slip into the pages of The

.

They will meet the fox or the lamplighter thanks to the 14 giant sculptures by the artist Arnaud Nazare-Aga.

An immersive experience in the characters and the verbatim of the famous universal tale.

Culture

Marseille: "My God, it's Saint-Exupéry" ... The crazy story of the diver who located the wreck of the writer 20 years ago

Society

MH370, Rio-Paris, Saint-Exupéry: Ten unsolved mysteries of aviation

• The little Prince

• Aeronautics

• Culture

• Toulouse

• Literature