Voltaire (1694-1778)

Born in Paris in 1694, François Marie Arouet, son of a wealthy notary, received a humanistic education from the Jesuits. When he was 24 years old, he completed in prison his first major play "Oedipe", he became famous thanks to it and adopted his pen name "Voltaire" that same year.

He constantly sought security far away from Paris : in Cirey at Madame du Châtelet's home, with Frederik II of Prussia, in the Château de Prangins, and then in his Délices ; and finally in Ferney, where he stayed for the last twenty years of his life.

In February 1778, having returned to Paris, he staged his last play « Irène », which was a spectacular triumph. He died on May 30th 1778. His ashes were transferred to the Panthéon on July 11th 1791.

Voltaire, the patriarch of Ferney (1758 – 1778)

After a life of wandering, aged of 64 years old and endowed with a tremendous fortune, Voltaire settled in Ferney, an independent territory near Switzerland, from where he was to exercise considerable intellectual influence across Europe. «  Finding free land where one is the absolute master, being at one and the same time in three sovereignties and depending on none of them, is a singular happiness to which I could not have dared to aspire ».

In Ferney, Voltaire discovered a personal vocation as a landowner and lord of the village. From an impoverished village with a population of 150 inhabitants which he first encountered, he left behind, when he died, a prosperous small town of more than 1000 inhabitants.

Guided tours are organised by the tourist office during the summer for individuals and all the year on reservation in advance.