Chateaux of the Loire Region: Chateau Royale d'Amboise and Clos Luce

Two chateaux of note in Amboise: Chateau Royale and Clos Luce. Chateau Royale was the residence of the king when the capital of France was in Amboise. It stands 40 meters above the Loire River with spectacular views of the valley.

This was the chateau where Charles VIII bumped his head and died, leaving the widowed Queen Anne of Bretagne, a favorite of the French people, to grieve his untimely passing. 

Charles' successor, Francois I, brought Leonardo Davinci to Amboise where poor Leo died 3 years later at the age of 67 and is supposedly buried in the Chapel of St. Hubert on the palace grounds. The Italians, of course, deny this and insist that Leo is buried in his Italian homeland.

During his time in France, Leo lived at Clos Luce, an elegant chateau just a short distance from the royal palace, and supposedly connected to the palace by a secret underground passage so that the scholarly 22 year-old Francois could visit the elderly Leo to enjoy stimulating intellectual conversations over wine and dinner. But after all, what good is a castle without secret passages?