The bilingual site devoted to the cultural life in Sri Lanka and in France                                                         Le site bilingue consacré à la vie culturelle au Sri Lanka et en France H O M E   /   I N  B R I E F CONTACT US TOPICALITY Sri Lanka / France CULTURE Cinema Dance Exhibition Heritage Literature Music Photography Poetry Spirituality Travellers DOSSIERS Fascination of the body Paul Cézanne In the Light of Gauguin Globalization Jean de La Fontaine Malraux / Segalen Picasso-Rodin Pigeon houses in Quercy Raphael SOCIETY Abortion AIDS Death Penalty Mental Health GALLERY Raphael Miniatures of Kangra, India ARCHIVES . . . hundred years ago In 1900 Aviation does not exist yet, since it is only on December 18, 1903 that the Wright brothers will make a success of their first flight. In 1912 To fly is the prerogative of those which one still names the " Adventurers of the Sky ". In July of that year, a 12 year old little boy receives his first flight in Lyon. His name is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Jules Roy He was an immense man, an innovator, a discoverer. He gives up making career in the marine and enters the new and exciting world of aviation where, from Toulouse to Morocco, then in South America, he is one of the pioneers of prestigious Aéropostale. Saint-Exupéry     For me, to fly or write, it is all one. He already wrote Southern Mail (1933) and Night flight (1932) when he leaves the Company and devotes himself to writing, but in 1935, the passion of his life takes him again, he returns to piloting. Jules Roy He resembled to an old archangel for whom the sky is not enough... The war will see him achieving 9 missions. From the 9th, he will not return. The night before his death, he wrote: If I am shot down, I do not regret absolutely anything. Anne Morrow-Lindberg He will find his place, a peaceful bed in some cemetery in North     Africa... He will be sent where he is going : death... July 31st 1944, the poet aviator is struck down... Didier Daurat : He disappeared... among the stars like... The Little Prince. I am deeply sad, I am sad for my generation, who is emptied of any human substance. I hate my time - with all my forces - there, the man dies of thirst. I hate this time, - universal totalitarianism - where the man becomes soft, polite and quiet cattle... it is absolutely necessary to speak to man. We cannot be satisfied only by refrigerators or politics, or sports, one cannot any more.   one cannot live without poetry, color, or love.   T he robot man, the termite man, the castrated man from his creative capacity, who, in his remote village, cannot create one dance even any more nor a song, the man who is fed by a standardized culture, as an oxen fed by hay, this is the modern man. Tthere's only one problem, one there, all over the world to return to the man's spiritual concerns... a spiritual significance. Adapted from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Letter to General X (Oujda, Algeria, June 1943). Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) A Antoine, Lorsqu'au désert il se réveille, Sous un ciel d'étoiles couronné, Le mendieur d'azur, tout pareil A l'enfant dans l'aube qui naît, Salue la dune que le soleil Caresse. Tellement étonné Qu'un vent apporte, quelle merveille, Tintinnabulant, résonné, L'écho subtil d'une voix - éveil D'un petit prince abandonné... J.S. One hundred years ago was born Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, poet and pilot "I consider that flying and writing are the same thing." "There is one problem, only one problem in the world : to give back to human beings a spiritual meaning, spiritual concerns." Letter to General X, July 1944. L'ALLIANCE FRANCAISE DE KANDY (SRI LANKA) presented a special display from the 15th to the 21st of December 2000 in homage to the French writer and pilot : exhibition, films, theatre…    Homage to Saint-Exupéry in the cultural capital of Sri Lanka, the hill capital, Kandy. Two hours of representation in a beautiful environment decorated by the colours of the Aéropostale, in order to recall the life of this exceptional man who has been able to conciliate and harmonize the art of writing and passion of adventure. The exhibition "Wind, Sand and Stars..." preludes a presentation of the Little Prince by the students of the Alliance Française, and a show displayed by Mark Amerasinghe and Valentine Basnayake (piano). The stars of the Little Prince twinkle above Kandy this Friday evening... Suriyakantha IN PARIS, a play adapted from Saint-Exupéry... Théâtre Lucernaire : "The Little Prince" is thirteen... Théâtre Lucernaire - Centre national d'art et d'essai 53, Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, 75006 Paris.  tel : 01 45 44 57 34. It is one of the oldest plays in Paris with 10000 shows and more than one million spectators. This play is directed by Jacques Ardouin and 15 adult actors and 77 children have played the three main roles : Saint-Exupéry, the Little Prince and the adults. Sand of the desert and sand of the beach... "The Little Prince" From the North to the South, a drama group plays "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on the beaches during the month of August 2001. The Company Jean Blondeau has been specially formed for this ocasion : to play under the stars, with some young professional actors, "Le Petit Prince", the most translated book in the world. And Saint-Exupéry in a movie... Régis Wargnier ("Est-Ouest") is going to realise his first English film "Saint-Ex", whose cost is estimated at 40 million $. Shooting is scheduled on summer 2001. Site of the "Society for Works and the Memory of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry".