The If Castle

Just over a kilometre off the coast of Marseille, a stark white fortress rises from a small limestone island in the turquoise waters of the Bay of Marseille. The Château d'If is one of the most instantly recognizable silhouettes in southern France, immortalized by Alexandre Dumas as the inescapable prison from which Edmond Dantès, the future Count of Monte Cristo, accomplished one of literature's most celebrated escapes. Yet long before Dumas put pen to...