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Rare love letters to French aristocrat shed light on Louis XVI maritime mystery

World news | The Guardian

By: Kim Willsher in Paris

29 October 2026 at 14:00

‘Miracle’ cache of letters written by French scientist who died in ill-fated La Pérouse mission give personal account of 1785 voyage

As he prepared to climb the scaffolding to be publicly executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI is reported to have asked: “Is there news of Monsieur de la Pérouse?”

He was referring to Jean-François de Galaup, the count of Pérouse, a naval officer and navigator whom the French king had dispatched in 1785 on a round-the-world scientific mission to rival discoveries made by the English explorer Captain James Cook.

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Rare love letters to French aristocrat shed light on Louis XVI maritime mystery

By: Kim Willsher in Paris

29 October 2026 at 14:00

‘Miracle’ cache of letters written by French scientist who died in ill-fated La Pérouse mission give personal account of 1785 voyage

As he prepared to climb the scaffolding to be publicly executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI is reported to have asked: “Is there news of Monsieur de la Pérouse?”

He was referring to Jean-François de Galaup, the count of Pérouse, a naval officer and navigator whom the French king had dispatched in 1785 on a round-the-world scientific mission to rival discoveries made by the English explorer Captain James Cook.

Continue reading...

In U.S. Gas Talks With Kremlin, Hidden Financing for Alaska Project Emerges

NYT > Top Stories

By: Anton Troianovski and Eric Lipton

24 October 2026 at 16:20

Interviews and documents show a Russian energy giant secretly funded a U.S. firm. The deal has been discussed in talks to end the war in Ukraine.

Oil drilling rigs in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The Polar LNG plan called for the company to tap into the giant load of natural gas available in the state’s northern reaches.