Discovering a set or a house created for a fictional character and visiting a place which inspired a writer to include it in his story is very different. I think I like the latter better. I’ve been to the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221 B Baker Street and I was quite unimpressed. Although the replication from fiction is brilliant. I couldn’t help thinking, well, all these artifacts aren’t real! Holmes really didn’t smoke this pipe or wear that hat did he?

However, Chateau d’If the fortress and then prison which inspired Alexandre Dumas to use it in his book the Count of Monte Cristo, really exists and it really was a prison once a upon a time. It is really a remote and uninhabited island. The only fabrication being, there were no single cells for prisoners originally but, there was one in the book and there is one now to tell the story.

Chateau d’If in the distance.

The prison cells around the courtyard