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three old papers with writing on them sitting on top of each other
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MERMOZ Jean 5 letters ‘Jean’, Casablanca, March–April 1926, to his ‘Beloved Mum’; 9 pages in-8 and 3 pages in-4. Stationed in Casablanca, he dreams of travelling the world. 8 March. ‘So here I am, finally settled in Casablanca – at least for as long as I see fit. Needless to say, I’m delighted. It’s just like life in France, much freer and less expensive. I’m not suffering the gradual erosion of my savings due to exchange rate losses; in short, it’s better in every respect’… – He urges his mother to go for a course of treatment at Mont-Dore. He is waiting to be paid his March salary before sending her ‘probably 11,000 or 12,000 francs. […] I’ll probably buy a car in France to make the most of a nice holiday’… He mocks an article about him: ‘Bloody hell! There’s nothing more stupid than a journalist! I don’t understand all the fuss that’s been made about this story… What we do for our correspondence is often far more impressive than this grandiose adventure; it’s just that nobody knows about it and, besides, nobody cares. On the one hand, a bit of publicity never does any harm’... – 1 April: ‘Since I’ve been in Casablanca, I can assure you I’ve been keeping busy. There’ve only been the two of us running the service for the past twenty days or so, which means I’ve barely been here for a total of five days since I arrived. Fortunately, reinforcements are on their way and I’ll have a bit more free time. […] You know full well that, despite the hard times I’ve been through and still go through from time to time, I have the courage to face things head-on, all the more so when they concern the one person in the world who means everything to me: my mother. […] We’ve just been through a very tough fortnight of storms. Yesterday, I arrived in the middle of the night and managed to land anyway, with the runway lights on, after a seven-hour flight. […] I may well be heading to South America – Argentina and Brazil – to launch a route there operated by our airline. If I didn’t go there, I would certainly be leaving this route for the months of June and July, probably to join Air-Union on the Paris–Marseille–Genoa–Naples–Athens–Cairo route. The little encouragement I’ve received has been useful to me all the same, and I know I stand a good chance. In short, you see, I’m eternally dissatisfied. My dream is to travel the world, and I don’t want to stay in one place for too long so as not to get tied down. Since I have to give up, for the time being, on making a name for myself through something exceptional (my expedition being, I believe, at the bottom of the Atlantic by now!), I want to make the most of it whilst waiting for the moment… the opportunity to fly in other skies’… – 13 April. He’d been feeling a bit tired: ‘a slight fever, probably due to the change in climate, and then a lot of work in bad weather. As a result, I’m not feeling very energetic, having also lost my appetite for a few days. Now things are back on track: just a change of scenery. […] I’ve got my flat in town, which I’ve decorated with Moroccan rugs; I’ve bought a sofa and feel quite at home there—when I’m there, that is, because at the moment I’m hardly ever there. I go horse-riding, I go to the seaside, I do athletics – in short, I’m not worrying too much. […] I’m still in talks with the Franco. I could join them straight away on the Paris–Strasbourg route. But that route is already oversubscribed. There are lots of pilots waiting for the route to be extended, and at the moment they’re only making barely 2,000 francs a month; I’d rather wait a bit longer and find out for sure about the opening of the Angora–Tehran route’…. – 23. “I’ve just been told that I’m off to Dakar tomorrow morning. It’s 10 pm and I’m leaving at four o’clock”… Correspondence, nos. 81, 82, 83, 85, 86. Source: - Jean Mermoz (1901–1936); - Gabrielle Gillet-Mermoz (1880–1955); - Then passed down through the family
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About the sale Historical Memories
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Auction time 11/03/2026 at 11:00 AM
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