On his return to France at the end of 1806, he published a severe criticism of Napoleon, comparing him to Nero and predicting the emergence of a new Tacitus. Napoleon famously threatened to have Chateaubriand sabred on the steps of the Tuileries Palace for it, but settled for merely banishing him from the city. Chateaubriand therefore retired, in 1807, to a modest estate he called "Vallée-aux-Loups" (""Wolf Valley""), in Châtenay-Malabry, south of central Paris, where he lived until 1817. Here he finished "Les Martyrs", which appeared in 1809, and began the first drafts of his "Mémoires d’Outre-Tombe". He was elected to the Académie française in 1811, but, given his plan to infuse his acceptance speech with criticism of the Revolution, he could not occupy his seat until after the Bourbon Restoration. His literary friends during this period included Madame de Staël, Joseph Joubert and Pierre-Simon Ballanche.