Almost at the end of 1929... in
a night full of stars he had an emergency landing in a magical place...
It was during Saint Exupery's constant flights to develop his Aeroposta
Argentina that he had a curious accident on the aerial route to Asuncion in Paraguay. A chance to visit and old castle
in Concordia, a visit that becomes an enchanted step into another world in the chapter "Oasis" of his book Wind,
Sand and Stars.
The oasis is not in the desert, but is a spiritual one into which he
was privileged to enter. After an emergency landing Saint Exupery was welcomed into the home of Mr Fuchs, a french immigrant
who lived in an old, baroque mansion near the city of Concordia. Saint Exupery... "did not know he was going to live a fairy
tail"... but as he came in sight of the house, Saint Exupery saw "a castle of legend which as soon as the porsche was passed,
offered a shelter, as peaceful, as secure and as protected as a monastery". ... he wrote; It is all beautifully dilapidated,
yet cared for "like an old tree covered with moss", with a decrepitude, which reveled only "extraordinary respect". In this
home Saint Exupery is introduced to two young daughters, Suzanne and Edda who gazed at him "like two judges placed on the
threshold of a forbiden kingdom", then disappear in the rumbling house.
While at dinner time the two girls were judging him, and it is that
he passed the test of valor, smiling contentedly at the announcement of the vipers under the table... After the charm of this
visit Saint Exupery would call the two girls as princesses d'Argentine and would be a significant step in the personality
of his most popular character, The Little Prince.
