Château d'Amboise et le Clos Lucé

Friday morning started out at the château d'Amboise, in the town of the same name, right on the river Loire, in the département of Indre-et-Loire (the Indre is another river).

The castle in Amboise was built during the middle ages as a defensive castle. It was changed and added to to become the Renaissance structure we see today. King François I (yes, him again!) was raised in Amboise, as were the children of King Henri II and Catherine de Medicis, of whom François II, Charles IX, and Henri III all became king of France. These ruling families were all devout Catholics and during the wars of religion, Catherine de Medicis ordered murdered Protestants be hung off the balcony of the castle, overlooking the river to warn those arriving what their fate would be if they tried to impose a conflicting religion. This was all well and good until, after a series of Nostradamus-predicted-events, the last son Henri III died and the throne was passed to Henri IV (married to a sister of Henri III and bros.), a Protestant. Catherine de Medicis was not pleased.

This chapel next to the Amboise castle contains the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci, who died in France. Remember, he and François I were good friends. More about that later.

After touring the château d'Amboise, we walked through the sleepy streets of Amboise until we got to Le Clos Lucé, private residence of Leonardo da Vinci while he lived in France for the last two years of his life. Legend has it that the Clos Lucé was connected to the royal château by an underground tunnel so that François could visit Leonardo any time he wanted and vice versa.

Here we met the owner of the château, an eccentric and famous French historian named Gonzagues Saint Bris. In broken English he regaled us with the story of how he met Michael Jackson (a big fan of da Vinci's, apparently) and became friends with him. He then invited us to a cocktail party that was being held in his honor that night at a restaurant in Tours... the same city where we already had dinner reservations. Vincent, amazed at this encounter - the rest of us were mostly puzzled - said we'd be there! And so we were. Nothing like 15 American 20-somethings showing up at a party for someone they don't know, but Gonzagues certainly liked the spectacle of it! We walked away telling each other it was too bad no one else would ever fully understand just how bizarre the whole evening was...