FERNEY VOLTAIRE

 It was in Ferney that Voltaire spent the last twenty years of his life (1758-1778), only six kilometres from Geneva and five hundred from Paris. Today, Ferney has over 10 000 inhabitants drawn from several hundred nationalities.

As well as being very attached to its past (Voltaire's mansion has just been rebought by the French state and will soon be home to a Cultural Centre), Ferney-Voltaire embraces the modern era and is open to the world. From the remote retreat of Chateau Voltaire he hailed against social injustice and took up the defence of the victims of political and religious intolerance