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Still running at the Théâtre de la Pépinière, The Little Prince adapted for the stage by Virgil Tanase is just the kind of performance that grown-ups should take children to (and vice versa) over the holiday season. In his adaptation of the story, Virgil Tanase invites us all to join in a game. Actors Pierre Azema and David Legras take on the roles of the aviator and the various grown-ups the Little Prince encounters on his travels.

Just like Saint-Exupéry’s tale, this adaptation makes children laugh and inspires them to dream. Grown-ups will find it rather moving, too.

Performances: Saturdays at 14:00 and Sundays at 15:00 and 17:00. Informations and tickets : Théatre la Pépinière.

A book has to be one of the best presents ever. The Little Prince in pop-up version takes you right inside the story of the Little Prince and his odyssey, making it come to life and giving it greater depth (the planet overrun by baobabs literally jumps out of the book and seeing the fox physically approaching the Little Prince is truly moving).  Adults though we may be (with the heart of a child), we often want to share the treasures to be found in each chapter of the story.

This pop-up book version is our chance to tell the tale we first heard as a child, and to share it in a new way with our own little princes and princesses.

As the world climate summit in Copenhagen continues, today we want to talk to you about what is, sadly, still a little-known subject: the araucaria trees of southern Brazil (Paraná).

The araucaria tree, or Brazilian pine, is now critically endangered as a result of uncontrolled deforestation and illegal logging, despite being a protected species. In Brazil, a sizeable number of industrial groups and even local elected representatives choose to be « unaware » of the law and continue to cut down the araucarias. Criminal organisations are apparently directly involved in the deforestation process.

José Álvaro Carneiro is superintendent of IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental and natural resources institute, and is well known throughout the country for his battle against the illegal felling of the araucarias. His techniques include tracking down the rogue loggers with the help of the authorities and turning these ancestral forests into protected reserves under helicopter surveillance.

José Álvaro Carneiro is already a friend of the Little Prince: he happens to be married to Ety Cristina Forte Carneiro, one of the staunchest pillars of the Pequeno Principe Hospital in Brazil.

When the Little Prince takes care of his rose, he is not simply giving in to her whims. She is unique in the world, therefore precious and therefore indispensable. Our plants and our trees are indispensable to our ecosystem (trees absorb CO2) and to future generations.

The time the Little Prince spent on his rose is the time we should now spend on our environment. To find out about what you can do to attend to our planet’s « toilet », visit the Cool Planet 2009 website.

– The industrialised countries must adopt targets to curb their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, within their own borders.
– The industrialised countries must also make available 100 billion euros a year between now and 2020 to aid developing countries in adopting a sustainable, low-carbon energy model.

For their part, the developing countries will undertake to limit growth in their own greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The Little Prince was appointed campaign ambassador to inform young people about their rights. In 2009, he signed up for another term, this time to take part in the climate change campaign. The Little Prince has become something of a sustainable development consultant to the Cool Planet website, offering a new tip every day on how to take better care of the planet.

Find the Little Prince on the Cool Planet 2009 website!

Juh is a young illustrator based in Chambéry, and his characters are reminiscent of graffiti figures or the new wave of manga.
We were reading through his blog when we came face to face with a young lad, all alone in the desert. Despite a fairly modern-day look, we had no trouble recognising the Little Prince. A little higher up, an airplane could be seen spiralling down out of the sky. No prizes for guessing who might be in the cockpit.  Here were the makings of a heart-warming meeting.

Like the previous drawings, this Little Prince is represented in a more « modern » style, but it is still very much our own Little Prince, to whom many artists have already paid graphic tribute.

Rachel Portman is a composer who specialises in film scores, and has worked with such highly-respected directors as Alan Parker and Robert Redford. At the beginning of the decade, she was offered a new challenge: composing the score for an opera adaptation of The Little Prince, with the libretto by Nicholas Wright.

From 2003 to 2005, the opera has since played at the New York City Opera and the Houston Grand Opera, to name but two. Take a short « opera break » and watch an extract from the performance, as well as admiring some of the preliminary sketches (by Maria Bjørnson) for the many costumes.

Now this edition is on sale through the Little Prince online store – with all proceeds going to SIPAR to help finance its social and educational projects.

Visit the online store now: for every book purchased, 10 euros go to SIPAR!

Saint-Exupéry and his Little Prince are popular icons in Japan. And Paris is one of the preferred destinations for Japanese tourists. The Musée de France website specially designed for Japanese visitors features a map of « Saint-Exupéry’s Paris ».

Following the guide created by Yoko Masuda, tourists can visit key places in the life of the writer.

The web guide is also a panorama of all the venues that celebrate the author of The Little Prince. Yoko Masuda invites his fellow-countrymen to visit the Panthéon and track down the inscription in honour of Saint-Exupéry, or Le Bourget airport, from which the aviator took off in1935 on his bid to beat the Paris-Saigon flight record and, above all, the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace with its dedicated IWC/Saint-Exupéry section that takes the visitor deep into the life of the pilot.

For friends of the Little Prince, the collection at the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits includes the manuscripts of  Les lettres à l’inconnue – (letters to an unknown) and Au centre du desert (in the centre of the desert), the central chapter of Wind, Sand and Stars.

Friends from Japan, welcome to the Paris of Saint-Exupéry!