In late 1929, the French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry arrived in Buenos Aires to take up the position of director of the Argentine branch of the Aeroposta company. As his residence, he chose apartment 605 on the sixth floor of the Galería Güemes (at Florida 165), one of Buenos Aires’s first skyscrapers, which at that time dazzled with its European architecture.
A seal in the bathtub and night flights
The author of *The Little Prince* led an intense and eccentric life in Buenos Aires. During his flight missions to the south of the country, Saint-Exupéry became fascinated with Patagonian wildlife, to the point that one day he returned to Buenos Aires with a seal pup. The animal ended up living for a time in the bathtub of his apartment on Galería Güemes, according to anecdotes recounted by his biographers.
But the sixth floor of that building wasn’t just home to eccentricities. It was within those walls, overlooking the city’s rooftops, that the Frenchman found inspiration and wrote much of his celebrated novel *Night Flight* (*Vol de Nuit*), published in 1931 and heavily influenced by his daring aerial journeys over Patagonia and the Andes Mountains.
From Apartment 605 to the Restored Lookout
Today, nearly a century after that stay, the Galería Güemes remains an architectural gem in the heart of Buenos Aires. Although Apartment 605 is not open as a formal museum, the entire building keeps alive the mystique of its most illustrious resident, and tours are even offered of that apartment, which has been preserved intact.
The greatest treasure that connects today’s visitors to Saint-Exupéry’s passion for the skies is the Galería Güemes Observation Deck, located on the 14th floor at a height of 87 meters. After being closed for decades, it was restored and reopened to the public, offering one of the most spectacular 360-degree views of Buenos Aires.
Climbing up to this observation deck not only allows you to gaze out at the domes of Buenos Aires, the Río de la Plata, and the Uruguayan coast on clear days, but also invites you to imagine the city from the perspective of that aviator who, before giving *The Little Prince* to the world, used to dream while gazing at the sky over Buenos Aires.
