To celebrate Antoine de Saint Exupéry is to pay tribute to freedom and poetry.
Wednesday July 31, 2024 was a day rich in emotions and events. 80 years later, precisely from the airfield where Antoine de Saint Exupéry took off in his Lightning P-38 for his last flight, the Borgo municipality and its main partners – the French government, the Ministries of the Armed Forces, the Interior and Culture, and the Corsican Chamber of Commerce and Industry – organized an exceptional commemoration in the presence of the family of the author of The Little Prince.
In the morning, a mass was presided over by Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo in the Church of the Annunciation in Borgo.
Guests then moved on to Camp Henri Martin, where a souvenir book was unveiled and an olive tree planted in the presence of Olivier d’Agay, grand-nephew of the pilot-writer and President of the Antoine de Saint Exupéry Youth Foundation, and civil and military authorities.
The ceremony continued at Camp Colonna d’Istria, where a stele was unveiled following the Lyre Bastiaise’s rendition of “Honneurs au Champs” and the French Anthem “La Marseillaise”. A flight by PUMA emotionally concluded this moment of remembrance of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s sacrifice for the Liberation of France on July 31, 1944.
Finally, the day of commemorations ended at 6:30pm at Bastia-Poretta airport, where a stele, erected in 1954, salutes the author of Vol de nuit, in collaboration with the ANORAAE and ANSORAAE associations.
In the evening, during the gala, the prizes were awarded for the “Parle-moi de Saint Exupéry” educational memory competition organized by the Office National des Combattants et Victimes de Guerre, which saw the participation of 140 pupils in Haute-Corse, from elementary school to university.
