L’Envol des Pionniers tells the story of the adventure of the airmail and its aviators, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Jean Mermoz, Henri Guillaumet. The cultural site is part of the ambitious Toulouse Aerospace urban project that Toulouse Metropole is developing in Montaudran, the historic birthplace of aeronautics.
In order to honor and publicize the incredible Toulouse epic that saw the birth of civil aviation with the first Latécoère flight from Toulouse Montaudran, followed by Aéropostale and then Air France, Jean-Luc Moudenc, Mayor of Toulouse and President of Toulouse Métropole, wanted the historic buildings around the mythical runway to be restored.
In partnership with the descendants of the pioneers and numerous associations, L’Envol des Pionniers, a space dedicated to the memory of aeronautics, was created and inaugurated on December 20, 2018, 100 years almost to the day after the inaugural flight to Barcelona.