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a letter written in black ink on a piece of paper
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Estimate €600 - €800
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MERMOZ Jean L.A.S. ‘Jean’, Martigues, 18 September 1931, to his ‘Beloved Mum’; 4 pages, in-4 format, on letterhead from the Hôtel Sainte-Anne. Disagreement between Mangaby and Gilberte. He thinks he’ll be completely ready by Friday. “We’d have been ready long ago if we’d proceeded more methodically in Paris. We’re better off working here… there’s only one person in charge… all the issues have been thoroughly examined and this time we’re confident in what we can achieve.” But bad weather risks delaying everything. He is asking for weather reports from Argentina and Uruguay. “If there’s any chance of two or three days of fine weather over there, perhaps I’ll pop over to Buenos Aires at the end of the month? I’m having the second engine sent here, along with my radio; Mailloux has been told. In eight or ten days’ time I’ll know for sure. If everything goes to plan, I’ll pop over to Paris to pick you up and to see Grandad and Granny before I set off.” He’d like his mother’s trial to be over. “The only thing that really hurts me is that, when you’re with Gilberte and me, you’re never really happy; during the few days and moments spent with you […] you don’t speak, you don’t say a word […] your presence, which so often feels so distant, astonishes and revolts me. Mum, my dear Mum, you who are—and whom I know to be—so good… sometimes it seems to me that I can no longer feel you, no longer recognise you. Yet you have looked after Gilberte as if she were your own daughter […] but I can sense all too well that you did it solely for my sake, and that deep down, you still hold the same slight against her: that she has taken up such a large part of my life that there isn’t enough left for you… you suffer because of it… I understand that too. But Mum, everyone has their own life, their own destiny. Gilberte came into mine at a time when I was least expecting it… that is the eternal law of human life, and I have not escaped it. What can you do about it? She’ll stay as long as fate allows… we love each other and we’re living our lives… just like everyone else. […] Mum, I understand why you’re suffering, but my life is my life… that’s how it’s turned out for me and neither of us can do anything about it. I do not know what the present and the future hold in store for me: it matters not to me. I rejoice in the lot that has been dealt to me, and I shall bear this storm with fortitude should it become less merciful towards me. I am simply aware that I act with loyalty and integrity in every situation… so I am not prepared to fail in this regard towards you, who are my mother, one of the two people I love most in this world. And that is why I want there to be no ambiguity between us […] Gilberte has a very deep affection for you […] mine has not changed; it is simply more masculine, perhaps less demonstrative than in the past… but you must not hold that against me: I have many worries, many things on my mind… and then, to see you like this, withdrawn, shut in on yourself, of your own accord […] it pushes me away and I find it difficult to draw closer to you’… Etc. 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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