Often destroyed, looted, and rebuilt between the 12th and 18th centuries, the Chartreuse de la Verne, placed under the name of the Notre-Dame de Clémence virgin, enjoyed major spiritual influence for six centuries until the French Revolution. In 1790, all the monastery's properties were placed under sequestration, and the Carthusian monks had to leave their community. Dom Raphaël Paris, the last prior of the Notre-Dame de Clémence monastery, took refuge in Bologna in Italy. Most of the monks headed to the beach of Saint-Clair near Le Lavandou and took a boat to reach Nice, not yet part of France, and put themselves under the protection of the bishop.