📍Château de Voltaire, Allée du Château, 01210 Ferney-Voltaire, France
1759 – 1778“I was born François-Marie Arouet in Paris, the son of a lawyer, and educated by the Jesuits. My wit got me into trouble early: I was imprisoned in the Bastille and exiled to England, and my books were burned. I spent years moving between courts and countries. In 1758, tired of kings and censors, I bought the estate of Ferney, in France but just a short ride from the Swiss border and Geneva, so that I could slip across the frontier if the authorities came for me. I rebuilt the château, planted gardens and an avenue of trees, and set about transforming the poor village around it. When I arrived, Ferney had a few dozen people; I built houses, a church, a theatre and a school, drained marshes, revived the farms, and welcomed Genevan watchmakers who wanted their freedom, so that the village grew into a busy town with a flourishing watch trade. I wrote Candide around this time, with its famous conclusion that we must cultivate our garden, and at Ferney I did exactly that. Ferney became the centre of the Enlightenment. Visitors came from all over Europe to see the old philosopher, and I wrote thousands of letters from my study. From here I fought my campaigns against intolerance, above all for the Calas family, whose father had been wrongly executed in Toulouse. The villagers called me the patriarch of Ferney, and in 1878 the town added my name to its own, becoming Ferney-Voltaire. The château, now a national monument, is open to visitors who come to walk in my garden.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
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