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a letter written in blue ink on a piece of paper
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,200
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MERMOZ Jean L.A.S. ‘Jean’, Toulouse, 6 May 1931, to his grandparents, the GILLETs; 2 pages, in-4, in blue ink, on letterhead from the Hôtel du Grand Balcon. The future of the Aéropostale following the bankruptcy. He has had, and continues to have, a great deal of trouble with ‘the collapse of the Bouilloux-Lafont Group and the Aéropostale. I nearly lost everything I had, as my money was invested in the group’s companies in both Argentina and France. At the same time, we were no longer being paid by the Company, which was in such dire straits that we didn’t know from one day to the next whether it would still be in business. I managed to save everything I had in Argentina – 380,000 francs – which is now in a safe place. […] At present, I have 130,000 francs remaining, which are invested in the compulsory liquidation of the Caisse Commerciale et Industrielle de Paris. I have taken on a legal adviser and I expect to recover my funds in successive instalments. Mr Bouilloux-Lafont assured me that I would lose nothing and that he would make up any shortfall out of his own pocket. […] As far as the Company is concerned, too, although the situation remains very unstable and uncertain. In any case, our line is still operating, and that is the main thing for the moment. However, everyone is calling the shots: the B. Lafont group on one side, the liquidator and the supervisory committee on the other, and the government – so many factions are forming and tearing each other apart over the spoils. The intrusion of civil servants adds to the chaos. In short, a project like ours – which we had built so beautifully, with all our energy and all our determination – has been turned into a battlefield where all manner of personal, political and financial animosities are pitted against one another. It is very sad and very disappointing. Moreover, against my will, my name is being used and thrust to the fore in all the controversies against the government’; as in articles by Joseph Kessel or François Coty: ‘In short, I’m becoming a political celebrity, and all these troubles are raining down on me without my knowing where they’re coming from.’ He is sickened: ‘I’ve gone back to flying. That’s still where one feels most at home, and I’m flying the Toulouse–Casablanca route again. At least up there, everything is beautiful and clean’… He set the ‘closed-circuit record in Oran. At the moment, they’re preparing the aircraft for my straight-line record flight from Marseille to Buenos Aires. The modifications I’ve requested won’t be finished for another month and a half. At that point I’ll head back to Paris to take delivery of it and start my test flights”; he hopes his grandparents will come along, and they’ll visit the Colonial Exhibition. He’d like to come to Mainbressy for Whitsun with the Potez… Gilberte came to Oran with him: “We made two perfect crossings, one from Port-Vendres to Oran. We travelled on to Algiers and then returned by boat from Algiers to Marseille. The trip didn’t tire me out. I slept for half an hour in total, drank a glass of champagne and ate ten oranges! Naturally, I’d lost about two kilos, but I was in good shape and, with my appetite, I quickly recovered”… 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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