A wreath thrown on Mediterranean
waters commemorated the day 60 years ago when Antoine de Saint-Exupery,
aviator and author of "The Little Prince," disappeared without trace
during a wartime flying mission.
The ceremony took place off the south French city of Marseille near the
island of Riou where Saint-Exupery's Lightning P38 military aircraft
crashed and sank on a reconnaissance mission on
July 31, 1944.
For decades mystery surrounded what happened to Saint-Exupery, author
of the children's book "The Little Prince," which has captured the
imaginations of young and old since its publication in 1943.
Those present at the Saturday remembrance ceremony at sea included Luc
Vanrell, a local diver who last year discovered remains of the plane on
the seabed.
Also present were three French authors of a book called "Saint-Exupery,
the End of the Mystery" (Saint-Exupery, la fin du mystere).
Amateur historian Philippe Castellano, journalist Herve Vaudoit and
photographer Alexis Rosenfeld retraced the research that led to the seabed
remains being positively identified as those of Saint-Exupery's plane
after six decades of speculation on his fate.
Saint-Exupery, a veteran pilot who helped
establish Latin America's Aeropostale air delivery service in the late
1920s, went missing shortly after flying out of his base on Corsica in
good weather.
A wreath-laying ceremony was also held at Bastia airfield on Corsica,
followed by a mass in the Corsican town of Borgo, from which Saint-Exupery
took off on the fateful last flight.
While serving with Free French Forces, he set out on the reconnaissance
mission over Nazi-occupied southern France in preparation for the landing
of Free French Forces in the south of France, shortly after the Allied
invasion in Normandy.
Few bookshelves are complete without a copy of "The Little Prince," the
tale of the little boy who leaves his home on a tiny asteriod and his beloved rose to search for adventure
among the other planets, along the way learning valuable lessons about
love and life.
(AFP)
