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a handwritten 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’, Natal, 16 June [1934], to his ‘Beloved Mum’; 3¼ pages, in-8 format, with an Air France vignette. Work on the Natal airstrip where the ‘Arc-en-ciel’ has become bogged down. Mermoz is stranded in Natal ‘because of the terrain, which was poorly prepared and has become completely soft and impassable due to the torrential rains that have been falling continuously for a month and a half and are set to continue until the end of July. I had planned to set off for Noronha tomorrow and continue with the mail via Praia (Cape Verde) and Port-Étienne. Frescheville assured me that the terrain at Noronha was excellent. I went to land there with the Arc-en-ciel and only managed to do so on the third attempt, as the surrounding terrain is so mountainous and steep; then I got bogged down in a proper swamp running right through the middle of the airfield: it took two hundred convicts (that’s the Brazilian penal colony) to get me out of there. Fortunately, I was able to take off again from there the very same day. […] If I hadn’t known my machine as well as I do and if I hadn’t had experience of this sort of sport, I could easily have wrecked everything. So, we’re working on the field in Natal. I’ve hired one of the city’s prehistoric road rollers. Collenot is ploughing the field with a tractor and a plough: we’re rolling the ground and trying to make a temporary take-off strip. We have to do everything ourselves: Air France still hasn’t been in touch and isn’t helping us at all.” He hopes to set off again towards the end of the month and return directly to France. “I’ve been negotiating and fighting for take-off runways for a year now […] I won’t set off again until I’m sure the airfields are safe; I’ve had enough”… 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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