Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), author of the novella “The Little Prince” (Le Petit Prince), is probably the most famous Lyonnais. He was born in this house on 29 June. His family could trace its lineage back to a fifth-century saint, and Antoine enjoyed a comfortable life until his father’s sudden passing at Lyon’s La Foux train station. The unexpected death destroyed the family’s financial security and turned them into “impoverished aristocrats”. At the age of four, Saint-Exupéry had to follow his mother, three sisters, and younger brother to new premises on 1 place Bellecour. But disaster seemed to haunt the family. During World War I, his brother contracted rheumatic fever (a disease affecting the heart and brain) and died. Saint-Exupéry described his passing as a gentle fall resembling the fall of a young tree (an image that influenced his most famous work many years later).