On the 15th of January 1934, a Dewoitine tri-motor commercial airliner, the 'Emeraude' (Emerald), returning from Indochina, crashed into a hillside near Corbigny, killing all ten people aboard, including the director of Air France, Maurice Noguès, and the governor-general of the colony of French Indochina, Pierre Pasquier.
On the return flight when only 400 km (250 mi) from its destination, Le Bourget airport, Emeraude struck a hill near Corbigny in a violent snowstorm and was destroyed.
In 1988 Barry Pilton wrote a follow-up book, One Man and His Log (subtitled The Cautionary and True Tale of Five Buffoons and a Barge) also illustrated by Gray Jolliffe, recounting a journey along the Canal du Nivernais from Corbigny to Clamecy in central France.
Corbigny |