Enjoy a unique experience with the Tour de Piste
Enjoy a guided tour with Tour de Piste
Depending on opening hours – 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
From the age of 8
1 hour
€5
Accompanied by one of our guides in period costume, explore the entire historic site of Montaudran, from the airfield to the assembly buildings. A tour that will surprise you.
Visit All the Iconic Places of L’Envol des Pionniers
Throughout a one-hour guided tour, relive the history of the cradle of Toulouse aviation, through the small and great adventures that marked the epic of “La Ligne.” Walk in the footsteps of the pioneers who shaped today’s aviation.
Didier Daurat’s Office
Visit the office of the famous and iconic Didier Daurat. Faithfully reconstructed, it helps young and old alike understand the role and values of this extraordinary character.
Didier Daurat was “The Boss,” the operations director of Latécoère airlines and then of the Compagnie Générale Aérospostale. From this simple office he managed the largest airline of his time from Toulouse to Santiago. His determination, his sense of collective commitment to the mail service had such an impact on the men that people of the time spoke of the religion of the mail.
01 — 04
The Airfield
Meet at the airfield, Didier Daurat’s favourite viewpoint; he never missed a landing or take-off. And it always happened in this field. No hard runway, no, planes braked by scraping the ground with their tail skid. Take advantage of this moment to admire the former landing and take-off runway of the legendary planes of La Ligne.
The Radio House
As you pass near this simple hut, you will perhaps hear the noises so characteristic of wireless telegraphy, come and listen to the first radio operators of La Ligne communicating with the ground.
Communications were carried out in Morse code… One of the simple messages for the plane to indicate that its trip was going well was this message in Morse code: TVB…, (Tout Va Bien) which means All Is OK!
In the early days, planes had only a few instruments on board, but nothing to communicate with airfields. With the arrival of the Laté 28s on La Ligne, on-board radios could finally communicate with the ground.
The Postal Wagon
Board a postal wagon and find yourself in June 1930 and meet our Jules Cheval who will tell you many stories inside the wagon. Relive the story of the travelling mail workers, who sorted mail on board all night before arriving at the station in the early morning.
To immerse you in this atmosphere, sound and light take you on a journey between Paris and Toulouse to drop off the famous sorted bags heading to Africa and South America in the early morning.
This magnificent red carriage arrived in service on the Paris-Toulouse line in 1930, retiring only in 1995. With it, L’Aéropostale no longer had to wait for the mail to take off and thus could connect Toulouse to Casablanca in the course of one day!
A little history
The Mail
At the time, a letter posted in the evening at Paris-Austerlitz could arrive by train the next morning at Toulouse-Matabiau, then by truck to the Montaudran aerodrome to be loaded by an Aéropostale plane heading for South America.
Didier Daurat
Very committed to the human adventure of L’Aéropostale, he wanted to be buried in Montaudran. In memory of their “Boss,” the veterans of La Ligne had a monumental sculpture built for the occasion. You can find it in the “Jardins de la Ligne.”
Didier Daurat inspired Antoine de Saint Exupéry for his book “Night Flight,” for the character of Rivière.
Radio Message
Mermoz, then a pilot on Air France, on board the LATE 300 “La Croix du Sud,” sent this message on the radio waves of La Ligne “We have cut the right rear engine.” These were the Archangel’s last words. It was December 7, 1936, on a mail transport between Dakar and Natal.
©Collection Musée Air France
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