2023-09-12 18:35:00
The arrival of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry a Concordia It changed the life of the peaceful city of Entre Ríos forever, but it also changed the life of the pilot who wanted to be a writer. It is that the creator of “The little Prince”, whose first edition was published on April 6, 1943 – 80 years ago – found in this city the necessary inspiration to write his masterpiece.
In Concordia he met and became friends with the family. Fuchs Valoninhabitants of the so-called “San Carlos Castle”, located on the outskirts of the city. It was by knowing and treating Suzanne y Edda, 12 and 18 years old, daughters of the Fuchs Valon couple. They were two very particular girls, who enjoyed great freedom, dressed in their own style and were friends with wild animals. What’s more, in one of the photos that remain of the writer and some of the girls, Saint-Exupéry has in his hands a ferret, which they had adopted. Several of these questions were those that the author later used to write his famous book.
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But how was the meeting? It happened in December 1929, when the writer and pilot worked for a French postal company, the General Aeropostal Company. On one of the trips between Buenos Aires y Assumption of the ParaguaySaint-Exupéry’s plane broke down and landed on the outskirts of Concordia, with such bad luck that one of its wheels got stuck in a vizcachera tree.
Furious, the pilot might not believe that upon seeing him land, two women approached him, speaking among themselves in French, making fun of him, without thinking that he was a Frenchman who understood them perfectly.
The pilot was helped by the girls and his family, and made friends with everyone, being on other occasions invited to the famous San Carlos castle, a mythical and legendary place in Concordia.
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Saint-Exupéry told of his adventure in Concordia and his little princes in a journalistic note that he later included, under the name “Oasis” in his book “Land of Men”. There he recounted a dinner where the sisters scared him with snakes. It is also said that the author took the scene of the little prince with the fox regarding domestication from them.
The city honors the passage of Saint Exupéry in several ways. The enhancement of the castle, the commercial and educational establishments that evoke the writer or his very famous character multiply throughout the streets of Concordia.
These stories also made it to the movies. The medium-length filmOasis”, by Danilo Lavigne and the feature film “Night flight”, by Nicolás Herzog detail the writer’s relationship with the Fuchs Valon family and especially with the “little princes”.
But the history of the “castle” has other details, as legendary as having been the origin of a literary work that decades later is more read every day and does not lose validity.
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The construction of the San Carlos castle and the Demachy family
The castle was built by Charles Edouard Demachy at the end of the 19th century. He was one of the sons of an important French businessman. It is said that he was the “black sheep” of the family.
The versions circulating regarding the man are that he had married a dancer, despite his family’s opposition. With her and her son they arrived in Concordia in 1886, where they had her palace built. Except for the stones with which it was built, everything was brought from France, from the furniture to the curtains and carpets.
Gas lighting, running water, mobile toilets and a kitchen 260 meters from the main building (to avoid cooking odors) were some of the luxuries that the place with 27 rooms had.
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It was a place of parties and local social life. But shortly following, Demachy, his wife Yolanda and their son, returned to Europe. Much later it was learned that the family’s return to France had been to claim their share of the family inheritance upon the death of Edouard’s father, but the attempts were in vain. He never forgave his son for the “freedom” of marrying a dancer and disinherited him.
As the Demachys had left debts in Concordia, the palace they had built and lived in passed from the Rural Society to the local mayor’s office. It was loaned to the Cavalry Regiment and rented to several families, including the Fuchs Wallon.
Abandonment, fire and enhancement
Everything was splendor, until it was abandoned and looted. Nothing remained of its original glory and a fire in 1938 perhaps erased the traces of theft. There began another stage in the life of the “castle”, which never returned to what it was.
For decades, it was a ghostly place. Without any care, without any protection, it was used as a refuge in the darkness and was even the scene of a false guerrilla uprising, as if it were a place lost in the jungle. From there, the self-proclaimed “Sabino Navarro Command”, in 2000, launched a proclamation through the media, while the people of Concord laughed at the crudeness of the situation. “What are they going to be guerrillas, if she’s the one who sells me bread?” some said. Others immediately identified the place, unmistakable for all of Concordia.
Finally, in 2013, the place was valued. Although they are still ruins, they are no longer graffitied or abandoned to the growth of vegetation. It is illuminated and has walkways so you can walk through it and immerse yourself in history. It is exciting to just think that one night, between those walls, Saint Exupery was able to write down a phrase in his inseparable notebook that ended up on the pages of his most glorious work.
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