He first went to Italy in 1772, after being accused of sodomy and attempted poisoning in Marseilles, crimes for which he would be condemned to death in his absence by the Parliament of Aix and executed in effigy. He fled with his lover, his sister-in-law the canoness Anne-Prospère de Launay, but in December was arrested and detained in the fortress of Miolans: he escaped five months later. In 1775 and 1776 he was again in Italy, staying there longer this time. He was pursued by the court of justice in Lyons following the complaint lodged by relatives of the five girls he had taken into his service and then involved in the debauchery for which his châleteau at La Coste was so notorious. Departing in the company of his servant Carteron, he left instructions with his lawyer to have his correspondence sent on to him and traveled incognito under the name of the comte de Mazan. After arriving in Rome and going back and forth several times between the city and Naples, he decided to return to France, overcome by boredom. He stopped at Grenoble and succeeded in making his way back to La Coste, but in 1777 was arrested in Paris and sent to the tower of Vincennes, where he was imprisoned in complete isolation for thirteen years. It was here that he set about putting in order the notes on which he had invested so much energy. After he was set free in 1790 he devoted himself resolutely to writing but no longer thought about his travels: his account would not be published until 1967.