Leonardo would be surprised to know he is called Renaissance Man and for a very good reason. He had never heard of the Renaissance. The French word meaning re-birth was not heard until 1855. When Jules Michelet wrote a history of France he talked about the French Renaissance.

How did Leonardo spend the last three years of his life in Amboise? What the famous painter did not do was paint. A slight stroke left his good hand, his painting left hand, mildly paralysed. The consensus is that the strange, disturbing painting of an androgynous Saint John the Baptist, who looks like Mona Lisa’s evil love child, with his finger pointing in the air was his last. He is thought to have finished it just before he left Italy for Amboise. Instead, he taught. Leonardo had always had students, one, Melzi, his right hand man, was so devoted to him he stayed until The Master died.

Nobles vied with each other to be invited to the royal court in Amboise. With no room for them in the Château, they built their own to be near, which is why there are so many in this area. The aristocracy spent fortunes and waited months on end to meet François, yet here was Leonardo, a man of low birth with daily access to the King.

We know that Leonardo arrived in Amboise in the autumn of 1516 but do not know how he got here. There are as many theories as to how he travelled from Italy as there are books written about him. There are no records of his journey but if, as is generally thought, he travelled over the Alps, it maybe that François I, with his experience of the Alps, advised him the best time to go. Leonardo had travelled all over Italy but this journey, believed to have lasted almost three months, was the longest he had undertaken.

The Loire Valley is hosting hundreds of events to celebrate the momentous occasion but would be visitors may be hard pressed to find a room in Amboise. Hotels, filled to bursting, some with camera crews from lands far away including South Korea report full house well into October. When the visitors have gone home, the old Château will still be presiding over the picturesque town and the mighty Loire as it has for a thousand years.

When Leonardo da Vinci set off on his three month arduous journey across the Alps from Italy to Amboise he was sixty-four and unwell.

Leonardo taught himself Latin to read the books he needed for his research. Because he was illegitimate, he was barred from a formal education yet was the most widely read artist among his contemporaries.

Although Leonardo’s remains are in Saint Hubert’s chapel in Château Amboise, this is not, in fact, where he was buried.

In his will drawn up by Monsieur Boreau, notary to the Royal Court (the law firm was still in business as late as 1885) Leonardo asked to be buried in the Church of Saint Florentin in Château Amboise.