Just found this accidently, looks like a good old story.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21237/21237-h/21237-h.htm

When I was a kid, I had a worn-out copy of the French translation of that book. Loved the stories, loved the pictures, re-read it over and over again, and told myself "I'll be going there and will do exactly that!!!".

I managed to grab a seat on Air Afrique in my late twenties. Spent the past 15 years on the Continent, still not bored with it!