The Little Prince theme park opens

A theme park inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupery's timeless classic The Little Prince opened this week in France, giving visitors a chance to recall the author's claim that "all grown-ups were children first".

The Little Prince Park hopes to draw 150,000 visitors a year with its hot air balloons, slides, live foxes and sheep and hi-tech learning tools based around the surreal tale of a golden-haired boy who lives on a planet a little larger than himself.

"Our target audience is children between two and 12 years old, as well as every adult who remembers that they were once a child," said Jerome Giacomoni, one of the creators of the project near the French borders with Germany and Switzerland.

By far Saint-Exupery's most famous work, The Little Prince has been translated into more than 270 languages since it was published in 1943. It is hugely popular in Asia.

The poetic novella about friendship, love and loss is one of the best-selling books of all time.

" The Little Prince is more than a brand, it is a set of values," said Giacomoni.