The Toulouse – Saint Louis Rally has made a comeback. This Thursday, May 26, 16 crews took off from the Toulouse-Lasbordes aerodrome, heading for Cap Juby, in Morocco. A ten-day epic in the footsteps of the Aéropostale pioneers, and the father of the “Little Prince”.

It is to follow in the footsteps of an illustrious character that they took off. Moreover, somewhere, they apply to the letter what Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had written in 1943 in “The Little Prince”: “Make your life a dream, and a dream a reality”.

This Thursday, May 24, 16 crews took off from Toulouse-Lasbordes aerodrome. In ten days, they will land at Cap Juby, present-day Tarfaya, in Morocco. After two years of interruption linked to Covid-19, the Toulouse – Saint Louis du Senegal air rally is back in service, and twice. Because on September 17, the pilots will take off again from Toulouse, this time towards Saint-Louis in Senegal.

Created in 1983, this event pays tribute to the pioneers of Aéropostale who took off from Toulouse – Montaudran to deliver mail in the southern hemisphere. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was on the trip.

If this first part of the air rally ends in Cap Juby, a Moroccan city on the Atlantic coast, it is because it is a memorial tour in homage to the famous writer and aviator.

In 1921, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry discovered Morocco when he did his military service with the 37th aviation regiment in Casablanca. Nine years later, he officiated as airport manager for the Aéropostale Latécoère company at Cap Juby, from 1927 to 1929.

It was there that he wrote his first novel: “Courrier Sud”. He tells there, from his flight notes, the epic of the mail bound for South America, through Spain, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal. Then will come other works, monuments of French literature: “The Little Prince”, “Terre des Hommes” or “Citadel”.

A century later, it was the turn of Saint-Exupéry’s great-nephew to take flight. Hugo de Halleux, 23, is taking part in the air rally for the first time. “It’s a bit of an adventurehe confides a few minutes before takeoff. We go into the desert, in the footsteps of the Aéropostale pioneers and we stop at Tarfaya, a mythical stopover. Maybe it will make us dream, inspire us like it inspired Antoine…”

At his side, François d’Agay, nephew and daughter of the famous writer. “My grandfather did not have the opportunity to pass his pilot’s licensetake the young man. It’s important to him that there is someone in the family who takes up the torch in some way.”

François d’Agay nods, visibly moved. “It’s a duty to remember. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was someone unique. He was a tall, sturdy man, but incredibly gentle. My grandmother told me he was a child. terrible, but with a heart as big as the world.”