One of the most famous prisons in Europe: the island of Yves, the Count of Monte Cristo, which houses the Iron Mask

The Count of Monte Cristo and the Man in the Iron Mask are two legendary figures familiar to readers around the world, and what they have in common, in addition to the French writer Alexandre Dumas, also include the island of Yves, which was imprisoned in an isolated island in the south of France.

Yves Island is located on the Mediterranean Sea, 1.5 km from Marseille, just 20 minutes by boat from the old port of Marseille. When the reporter stuck his head out of the cabin to look out, he saw a desolate limestone island across the sea, on the cliffs, a medieval-style castle towering majestically, the corner of the castle protruded from 3 turrets of different heights, and there was a lighthouse more than 10 meters high on the west side of the island, echoing the ancient castle.

The history of The Château d'Ife dates back to 1516 AD. In order to resist the invasion of neighboring countries from the sea, the king of France at the time decided to build a bunker on the island of Yves, the main water route in and out of Marseille. In 1658, Louis XIV, in his suppression of the infidels, turned Château d'Ife into a prison for Protestants and criminals. In the 19th century, after the outbreak of the French bourgeois revolution, Château d'Iff was completely transformed into a prison for the suppression of political prisoners by the feudal dynasty. Since the first prisoner was held in 1580, Yves Island has imprisoned more than 3,000 people over the centuries.

Although the history of Château d'Iff has been played out for hundreds of years, real interest in it began with two novels by the 19th-century French writer Alexandre Dumas, namely The Vengeance of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask. These two novels closely link the protagonist's fate to Fort yves and make this small island far from the mainland famous.

Stepping onto this isolated and mysterious island, walking into the eerie prison castle, the reporter first saw a small patio, around the courtyard wall walls are built on the four walls of the diversion ditch, if it rains, the rainwater will flow along these ditches into the middle of the deep well, becoming the island's drinking water reserve. The patio is surrounded by more than 30 cells, large and small, divided into three floors. On the door beam of each cell hangs a name tag that bears the names of important people who were imprisoned here.

Two of the most famous sights in the castle are the two cells where the Count of Monte Cristo and the Iron Mask were once held. The former is located next to a spiral staircase on one floor and has a doorway facing the patio. Walking into this stone brick hut of only six or seven square meters, I saw that the four walls were empty and eerie. The only thing that stands out is the black hole in the corner of the wall, illuminated by dim lights. Readers who have read "The Vengeance of Monte Cristo" know that this is where the protagonist and the old priest Faria meet unexpectedly. In the "Revenge of Monte Cristo", the protagonist Dontés (the real name of the Count of Monte Cristo) was sentenced to imprisonment on the island of Yves for being framed. To escape from prison, Dontese secretly dug a tunnel on the side of the cell, hoping it would eventually lead to the sea. Unexpectedly, while he was digging the tunnel, the old priest Faria, who was imprisoned elsewhere in the castle, was doing the same thing, and the two met unexpectedly in the tunnel. Later, with the help of the old priest Faria, Dontese eventually escapes from the isolated island and finds a fortune that Faria told him on his deathbed, and begins his plan for revenge.

Step out of the cell of the Count of Monte Cristo and climb up the spiral ladder to the second floor opposite the patio, where the Iron Mask man is held, and the name tag on it is particularly striking. Compared to the former, the cell where the Iron Mask was held was slightly larger, and the fireplace at the end of the room was dilapidated. There is also a small iron window on the wall that is one meter square. In the iron fence opposite the gate, there was another space, which could only accommodate two or three people. As you can imagine, the Scope of The Iron Mask's range at that time was not the entire cell, but only the small place where it was not easy to turn around.

Compared with "The Vengeance of Monte Cristo", dumas's story in the novel "The Man in the Iron Mask" is even more brutal. In order to remove the threat posed to his regime by his brothers, Louis XIV ordered that his brother's face be covered with an iron mask and imprisoned him for life on the island of Yves. In order to uphold justice, the three musketeers of the King's Musketeers took great risks to rescue the imprisoned Iron Mask and help him inherit the throne, so that the brutal Louis XIV finally got the fate he deserved.

The story, played out by the beautiful man Alandron in the movie "The Man in the Iron Mask", is almost a household name in China, but the tour guide questioned its reliability. According to many historians, the claim of twin princes is difficult to believe, because the birth of royals at that time was a very transparent matter, and the trick of "tanuki for prince" was unlikely to be realized. Still, many visitors are convinced of Dumas's story. Of course, without these wonderful stories, this isolated island is just a pile of rocks. With them, tourists come to visit and make the tourism of Yves Island very interesting.

Feel African love at "Karen Manor"

On the grass of Karen Manor, look up at the 100-year-old flame tree that has witnessed a world-famous, fiery love. Now the lovers are gone, but the bright red flowers on the top of the tree are still burning like flames. I looked in the direction of the wind, and in the house in the middle of the meadow, a curtain of window screens was gently blown into the room by the wind, as if it had opened a corner of the room, bringing out a bit of darkness and sadness.

Karen Manor is located in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, the original area of 600 acres, the current Karen Manor and Karen House Museum is only 1/30 of the original size, although the area is not large, but attract the attention of visitors to Kenya.

Karen; Brixen, a famous Danish writer, married baron Blow of Sweden in 1914; Brixon; Finneke, and came to Kenya with her husband to run a coffee farm. In 1918, Karen met the British hunter Dennis; Finch Hatton. In 1921, Karen separated from her husband and took over the management of the farm. In 1931, Dennis was killed in a plane crash. Karen then returned to Denmark and became a professional writer. In 1937, her autobiographical novel Out of Africa came out and won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

So I followed the wind that lifted the window screen into the house where Karen had lived for 17 years, looking for traces of the life that had inspired Karen's creation.

Karen's house is about 200 square meters and has 9 rooms. The 3 rooms at the entrance are occupied by the staff as offices and shops selling souvenirs. Walking along a narrow corridor to the end, we truly entered the world that Karen once lived in.

The room on the left at the end of the corridor displays photographs of Karen and her relatives and friends, most notably a photograph of Karen when she was young against the wall in the doorway. "This was taken when Karen first arrived in Kenya, when she was 29 years old," said Miss Rose, my tour guide. Karen in the photo is wrapped in a headscarf, the corners of her mouth are slightly cocked with youthful vitality, as if smiling, and a pair of deep eyes are full of hope and fantasy about life. However, karen soon arrived in Kenya and discovered that Bloe was a playboy, obsessed with women, and passed on syphilis to Karen a year after marriage, leaving Karen infertile.

In another photo in the bedroom, Karen's hairstyle has changed to the style of a mature woman, with her hands on her left cheek and her eyes hanging down, so she can't see the look in her eyes.

Dennis graduated from Oxford University in the United Kingdom and fell in love with Africa after visiting his family in South Africa in 1911. His personable and maverick style influenced many celebrities of the time, such as the famous American writer Hemingway, the son of US President Roosevelt and the Duke of Windsor in Britain. In 1925, after Karen divorced her husband, Dennis moved in with her. Thus, in Karen's 600-acre estate, under the fragrant frangipani tree, dennis could often be seen resting on Karen's legs, indulging in the fantasy Karen described. Today, the yellow and white frangipani are still hanging from the branches, and the wooden bench where Karen and Dennis were nestled against each other has decayed, leaving only a lonely shelf on the ground, with unspeakable loneliness and loneliness. Mount Engong, facing the bench, is where Dennis rests. "Between the soft and fertile land of England and the ridges of Africa is the path he has traveled all his life... On Eaton's bridge the arrow left the string, following its own track, hitting the stone tablet on Mount Ngong," Karen wrote in Out of Africa. The year Dennis died, Karen sold the estate and all her furniture and returned to Denmark alone, never to Africa.

After returning to Denmark for 6 years, everything karen encountered in Africa "from pupa butterfly" became the world's well-known work "Out of Africa".

Now, Dennis's picture of a melancholy smile is placed opposite the photo karen took when she was 29, two young faces facing each other, two pairs of life-hungry eyes looking at each other.

Outside the showroom, on the table in the dining room, the dishes were as fresh as ever, neatly arranged, as if the host and guest were seated and were about to open the table. "This table is the original from Karen's house, and the chair is a replica." Miss Rose said, "After Karen went bankrupt, she sold everything, and later established the Karen House Museum, and many people who bought things sent things back, but some of them still couldn't find them."

I saw a white porcelain plate on the high coffee table next to the dining table, which was very conspicuous. The center of the plate is painted with a green dragon with teeth and claws, and many visitors have judged that it is produced in China, but when they pick it up, the back of the plate reads "Made in Britain". In the living room opposite the dining room, a beautifully made leopard skin is spread on the floor, showing Karen's wealth and love of hunting. Miss Rose said: "This leopard skin is not the original, Karen gave the original to the Danish king, and the leopard skin is now a prop for the movie Out of Africa. ”

Standing in Karen's house, I thought, although she has named her work "Out of Africa", but she has left everything here, including her marriage, love, manor, and even the body of her lover, how can she really go out of Africa?