I have been fascinated with the French 18-century author the Marquis de Sade for years. A pioneer of truly trangressive, sexually explicit fiction – and a maverick thinker, lashing out against the ideas of the Enlightenment.

The “divine Marquis” had a number of addresses during his tumultuous life: From his estate, Lacoste, through the prisons of the Bastille and the Chateu de Vincennes, finally ending his life in the insane asylum in Charenton.

So on a trip to Paris, I decided to take a pilgrimage for the latter, which is located just outside central Paris. However, this proved difficult for a number of reasons (I should probably have done better research). Here’s just a few of the hurdles I encountered:

1. The names of both the town and the asylum have been changed. The former Charenton-saint-Maurice is now simply Saint-Maurice. And the former Charenton asylum is now part of the Hôpital Esquirol.
2. The town really doesn’t advertise its relation to the story of the old Marquis – I found no signs or plaques, and certainly no guided tours. In my attempt to locate the site I was left entire to my own devices – which for the reasons listed above was a bit of a challenges.
3. Several buildings have been added to the old asylum, but it still functions as a psychiatric hospital – with the kind of security you’d expect. And as I had no business even visiting the hospital, I had to make do with standing outside the gates, looking in. (After all, history tells us that if they should admit a deranged pornographer like yours truly to the hospital grounds, it’d be as an inmate, not a tourist)

End result: I did make it to the site, but that’s about it. The entire hospital was rebuilt in the 19th century – and I don’t believe any of the buildings I saw would have been there at the time of the incarceration of Sade.

On the other hand, I discovered that the part of town still named Charenton is a twin city of my neighbouring Berlin Bezirk of Tempelhof (technically, I live in Schöneberg, within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, so close enough).

I’ve since discovered that a better destination for a Sadean pilgrimage would probably be the Château de Vincennes – where you can actually see the prison cell Sade lived in for seven years.

2023 update: Se also my report from my visit to the Château de Vincennes.