Ladies Castle & Leonardo Da Vinci

About a 30 minute drive from our home in Loche, we visited Château de Chenonceau, also known as the "Ladies Castle." It earned this name because the majority of its historic caretakers were women. This castle, as can be seen in the photos, is spectacular to visit. No single picture can capture the whole splendor. It spans across a river, which was raging due to all the flooding that France has had over the last month, which made our appreciation for the construction of this chateau all the more impressive. The original structure was built on that of an old wood mill in 1514-1522 and was later expanded to cross the river. The history of this castle is as amazing as the structure and includes such names as Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medici and Louise de Lorraine, wife of King Henry III. During WWI the chateau was a hospital ward and during WWII it was a means of escaping occupied territory to the "free zone" opposite the river. The history is displayed inside the castle and makes for an afternoon of reading a fiction-like story book while walking through the setting.

View of the castle from the garden.  The piers to the lower left are home to the kitchen.

One of the kitchen fireplaces

Mom was drooling over the many copper pots hanging in the kitchen

AMAZING flower arrangements - all included vegetables and were grown in gardens on site!

Ironically, during our time here we actually ran into a couple from Australia who we had met at Hillsong in Barcelona, proving once again just how small the world is.

Upon leaving Château de Chenonceau, we drove to Amboise to see the invention-filled final living space of Leonardo da Vinci.  Towards the end of Leonardo da Vinci's life, the king of France, King Francis I, invited Leonardo to live with him and gave him the title, "Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect of the King."  We saw Leonardo's bedroom and learned that he was so fascinating to visit with that King Francis I required that he visit with him for some period of time each day in exchange for his living quarters!  While it was fun to see displays of his notes and inventions and how they were used to impact the world as we know it today, everyone enjoyed stumbling upon the gardens.  Not only had it stopped raining so we were able to run a bit, but there were large examples of Da Vinci's inventions that we could interact with!

Creating energy while burning some - win win!

Military Armored Tank inspired by Da Vinci who thought it could be driven by human or animal power, have 4 wheels and guns all around with a sheltered shooter inside.  Leonardo wrote, "This could take the place of the elephants.  One may tilt with them.  One may hold bellows in them to spread terror among the horses of the enemy, and one may but carabiners in them to break up every company."

Da Vinci worked on representing distances through working on contrasts, light & color.

Peacocks continue to amaze us during our travels - always so beautiful

We headed towards the small city center and Mom and Dad found a wine-tasting store and snuck in a quick 15 minute date while the kids read in the car, while we waited for the restaurant to open.  Dad was craving pizza, but as tends to happen quite frequently, when we arrived at the restaurant, it was closed that day!  We found another place serving pizza and afterwards enjoyed some Amarino rose shaped gelato as one of our sons had been craving that from our time in Paris.

Excited for his rose-shaped gelato treat!