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a letter written in black ink on a piece of paper
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,200
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Description
MERMOZ Jean L.A.S. ‘Jean’, Cap-Juby, 18 February 1927, to his grandparents, the GILLETs; 2 pages in-4 and 2 pages in-8. In Cap-Juby, he dreams of America. ‘At the moment, here in Cap-Juby where I am, it’s not at all warm. A jumper is no bad thing with the trade winds blowing in from Greenland, which rage like a storm for six or seven months of the year. In Casablanca, the weather is very mild, and in Dakar it’s pleasant, certainly, but I don’t often set foot there. Rest assured, I’m doing perfectly well; I’m not getting up to any mischief, I’m leading an absolutely normal and regular life, and I intend to keep it up for a long time to come. Ins’allah! […] It would be impossible for me at the moment to be wasting away on a quiet post in France. And besides, the prospect of new horizons is not something I’m inclined to dwell on. Life is so brief, and so few are fortunate enough to live it according to their own tastes and character, that I appreciate mine for what it’s worth and cannot resist its charm. I am tireless in my desire to see everything, to constantly discover what is, for me, the unknown in people and things; and there is so much to see, so much to discover, so much to appreciate, so much to admire that everything I have experienced so far seems so insignificant! […] I’d like to see South America, take another little trip to Syria, have a look round Persia, set foot in India and China, and then, well, finally, France. Don’t be put off! 40,000 km is hardly anything, and it’s a short journey these days. I’ve covered five or six times that distance in the last two years! ” He misses the good cider from Mainbressy… “I’ve been here for seven days now and I can assure you it’s hardly any fun. The days drag by at a desperately slow pace, especially since we’re no longer allowed to set foot outside more than fifty metres from the fort, ever since the Moors have already made several attempts to capture us and some of the Spaniards. […] I sleep for about 14 hours. I do the cooking, as we fly our supplies in from Casa. […] I have a cookery book, and I’ve become an unrivalled master chef […] In the meantime, I play bridge with the Spanish doctor at the fort or poker with the officers (I speak Spanish like a true hidalgo). I give the Moors a run for their money when they venture up into the air with me during aircraft test flights”… Correspondence, No. 106. Provenance: - 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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