Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay, French, 1828-1915 Désiré Charnay was an explorer almost from the beginning. Born in Fleurieux, he finished his education at the Lycée Charlemagne in Paris before traveling to Germany and Britain, and in 1850 moved to New Orleans to teach. After reading John Lloyd Stephens' popular accounts of his travels in Central America, published a decade before, Charnay returned