Le Château de Lacoste, Lacoste, Vaucluse (84)

Le Château de Lacoste is on a hill at the top of Lacoste village and although the original castle dates from the eleventh century, it has evidently been much modified since then. It passed into the ownership of the Sade family, and is today inevitably known as 'le château du Marquis de Sade'. The infamous marquis stayed here on several occasions between 1769 and 1778, the longest being in 1772, when he had a theatre constructed for 120 spectators. he is said to have been 'extraordinarily attached' to the building, which was in large part destroyed during the French Revolution. Despairing of the loss, Sade, riddled by debt, was forced to sell the property. The ruins were named a 'monument historique' in 1992, and in 2001 couturier Pierre Cardin bought it and began some restoration. In the summer there is an annual music festival there.

Pierre Cardin's shop is below in the village. Yes, of course it was closed.

And of course, there is a bust of Sade in the window.

The Marquis de Sade in the Château de Vincennes, 12th arrondissement: Literary Île-de-France #48

The dungeon of the château de Vincennes, where the Marquis de Sade (1740—1812) was imprisoned in 1777, then from 1778 to 1784, after which he was transferred to the Bastille. He was known as 'Monsieur le 6' after the number of his cell. In the Bastille, he began writing his first important work — Cent vingt journées de sodome (One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom). Simone de Beauvoir remarked that he went into prison a man, and came out a writer.

In 1789, after yelling out of his prison window that the Bastille was slitting prisoners' throats and killing them, he was transferred to Charenton insane asylum and released in 1790.

Sade was later to spend years in Charenton — where he put on plays ­ — after clandestinely publishing a number of 'obscene' books.

A man long associated with torture, flagellation, incest and rape among other horrors, the word 'sadisme' entered the French dictionary in 1834.