In 1864, Gobineau became the French minister to Greece.[111] During his time in Athens, which with Tehran were the only cities he was stationed in that he liked, he spent his time writing poetry and learning about sculpture when not traveling with Ernest Renan in the Greek countryside in search of ruins.[111] Gobineau seduced two sisters in Athens, Zoé and Marika Dragoumis, who became his mistresses; Zoé remained a lifelong correspondent.[112] However great his enthusiasm for ancient Greece, Gobineau was less than complimentary about modern Greece.