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a letter written in black ink on a piece of paper
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Estimate €700 - €800
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MERMOZ Jean L.A.S. ‘Jean’, Cap-Juby, 11 October 1926, to his grandparents, the GILLETs; 2 pages, in-4 (one edge slightly frayed). The doctor he saw in Toulouse authorised him to return to work, and he ‘set off straight away on a courier flight to Casablanca as a pilot, where I arrived that same evening. The next day I set off again for Juby, returned last Friday morning, and then left again on Saturday to stand in for a colleague going on leave. So here I am, and I’m taking the opportunity to have a little chat with you. I’m glad to be back in top form despite the bit of a shock I went through. You know how much I love my job and the marvellous life it gives me. What despair it would have been for me to give it up. That’s what I feared most. I would far have preferred a fatal end to the prospect of becoming useless! Anyway, now all that is nothing more than a nightmare. My appetite has returned, and the beautiful Moroccan sunshine, along with the atmosphere created by the return of everything I thought I’d lost and have finally regained, have helped me recover quickly. It’s impossible to imagine just how long that lost time seemed to me!” He explains that he put his application in the wrong envelope when applying to ‘join the Compagnie Internationale Paris-Constantinople, where I’d almost been given a promise’; the application ended up at Latécoère’s office. When he returned to Toulouse, “the Director, delighted to see me again after the fear he’d had of losing me […] made a great many assurances, promising to place me wherever I wished on the route, asking me not to go through with my plans, and finally putting me on a pedestal from which I very quickly stepped down to return to Casablanca, my favourite spot, whilst waiting for something better. All in all, this mistake did me a world of good: it became clear that I might one day be missed… well then! A little more consideration never goes amiss”… Correspondence, no. 95. 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
Auction location
Auction time 11/03/2026 at 11:00 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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