Visiting Musée du Petit Prince de Saint Exupéry à Hakone is like stepping out of Hakone, Kanagawa and straight into storybook France. This charming museum dedicated to the French pilot and writer, Antoine Saint- Exupéry and his most famous short novel, The Little Prince, was a delight from start to finish.
When you enter, you get an adorable ticket with a tiny picture of the prince himself on it, and a guide map folded like a large rose. From there, you enter the paved garden of a French manor, and wander into a tiny, picturesque French village, with mock storefronts advertising things like le pain, la chocolat and, as an amusing reminder of where you really are, flagrances.
The exhibition proper begins when you enter la Theatre du Prince and find a small theater, which looks a little like a cave, showing a short film about the book. It’s all in Japanese, but a lot of the footage is based off the original drawings so it is rather lovely.From there, you can pick up a copy of the very handy and detailed exhibition guide in English and head up the stairs.
The exhibition is laid out essentially like a walk-through of Saint-Exupéry’s life, from a mock-up of his childhood home in Lyon, to the various places around the world he spent time working as a commercial then air force pilot, to New York, to his final days as a member of the Free French Air Force before he mysteriously disappeared in 1944. There are dozens of rare photos and handwritten letters, and the sections are both nostalgic and haunting.
From there, the exhibition turns its attention to his best-loved work; the meaning of the characters, the context in which it was written and its place in the world today.
Last is a display of copies of the book in a selection of the around 250 languages it has been produced in to date.
I left the exhibition feeling vaguely unsettled, like I’d been thrown back in time and around the world a few times, but also touched by the last, and best-known, message Saint-Exupéry left for the world.
On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. We can only really see with the heart. The essential things are invisible to the eyes.
As well as the delightful gift shop, there is also a French style restaurant and café, where you can go for a meal or snack to prolong the time you spend in this little slice of storybook France.
There are several other excellent Hakone museums in the area, which are definitely worth visiting, but if you are a Petit Prince fan, I think this museum is a must-see.
