Louis Carné (de)

Louis de Carné (16 March 1842, Quimper, France — 28 Nov 1870, Plomelin, France) was a French diplomat and explorer who took part in the Mission d’exploration du Mékong in 1865 – 6.

In 1863, de Carné joined the Commercial Section of the French Foreign Ministry. According to his father, also Louis-Marie de Carné (1804−1876), he became interested in Indochina when Admiral Pierre-Paul de La Grandière — his uncle, a brother-in law of Carné pere, himself an influent politician and member of the Academie francaise — visited the family during a leave in France in April 1865. A few months later, he sailed to Saigon, with a stopover in Suez to visit his elder brother, who was working on the Suez Canal site with Ferdinand de Lesseps.

After exploring Cochinchina, Louis de Carné joined Doudart de Lagree in the Commission d’exploration as representative of the French Foreign Ministry, during which he contracted a tropical disease. Back to France in December 1868, he published his travel notes in Revue des Deux-Mondes, and completed his official report before his death at 28 years of age. His notes for a book on the Mekong Exploration Commission were edited and prefaced by his father.