Chateaus and Cave Homes

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Happy Birthday, Sissy!

We’ve always thought of chateaus as luxurious homes; it’s easy to forget they were castles, and castles are fortifications to defend against enemies.

















We are reminded of that here at Chateau d’Amboise. The chateau is situated at the confluence of the Loire and Amasse Rivers, high above the town, and a great place to get a clear view of any attackers.

Medieval French kings weren’t the first to find this a good spot for defense. The Celtic Turones tribe built fortifications here and in 503 Clovis, King of the Franks, and Alaric, King of the Visigoths, met here. Much later, in 1470m the future King, Charles VIII, was born here. In 1516, Francois I, heir apparent to the throne of France and patron of the arts, asked Leonardo da Vinci to come to the chateau as Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect.

Leonardo spent the last three years of his life at a manor house, Clos Luce, near the chateau. He brought some of his favorite paintings with him across the Alps from Italy, including the Mona Lisa. He is buried at the chateau, in St. Hubert’s Chapel

At Clos Luce we walk through Leonardo’s bedroom, the room in which he died. As I read this in the brochure, I glance at the fireplace along the wall on the left side of his bed, and I’m glad his room was comfortable. From the bed he could see out the window across the room, where the sky and trees are visible now. I can almost see the priest beside him administering the last rites, before he is joined with “the Creator of so many wondrous things.”

Next door is his study, The great genius, who wrote and painted and invented, worked on his many ideas here. In this room, too, there is plenty of light and space.

The entire manor house was his, and there are rooms for entertaining important guests, as well as a chapel and a kitchen, but the most interesting part of the rest of the house, for me, is the basement, where models of Leonardo’s inventions are on display. There’s an armored tank, the parachute, bicycle, and a car.

By the time I have finished looking at the inventions, Bernie is on the terrace at the café, having a ham and cheese gilotte because his blood sugar has just plummeted . He buys me an ice cream cone.

On the way down the hill we get a better look at the troglodyte, or cave homes built into the rock at the back of the street. Most of these are still inhabited; many have bright curtains and flowers planted along the front, and chimneys that stick out of the tops of the rocks many feet above them. This is something we never knew existed.

I wonder if Leonardo knew they were there?