For Amboise to honour French heroes such as General Leclerc and General de Gaulle is commendable. Even more commendable is when locals who are not household names are honoured.

This Post is part The Old Curiosity Shop (Dickens) part Fake or Fortune (BBC) and part Tommy and Tuppence (Agatha Christie’s amateur detectives).

When Louis XI died in Tours in August 1483, Charles, his son, heir and successor was thirteen. At an age when boys can barely govern themselves, let alone a nation, a Regent had to be appointed.

Amboise has always been a favourite stopping off place for travellers from the north making their way south through France on their way to Spain. In 1501 one such traveller was Princess Joanna of Castile.

Philippe d'Orléans was a main player in ridding France of the monarchy. Just thirty-seven years after his triumph, by a never imagined quirk of Fate, his son became King of France.

In 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, a portrait of Marie-Adélaïde, dressed in white, her head resting on her hand, her arm supported by a pillow, was painted by her protégée Louise Vigée-Le Brun. It’s hard to read her expression. Perhaps looking at Le Brun with affection?

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2022.

Marie-Amélie, born near Naples, was the tenth of eighteen children. It was intended she would marry the future king of France, her first cousin the Dauphin Louis Joseph, son of her mother’s sister, Marie Antoinette, but he died of tuberculosis age seven.