When Francis I appointed Leonardo da Vinci Premier Painter, Architect and Engineer to the Court of France the event heralded the beginning of most famous art gallery in the world.

Visitors to Château Royal d’Amboise may wonder who the Coats of Arms on the walls leading to the ticket office belong to.

Of all the royal châteaux along the Loire, that of Amboise was the most easily defended. It was the reason why it was chosen as the royal nursery.

Louis was a can-do king. A high achiever. He was also secretive, suspicious to the point of paranoia and, very mildly speaking, misanthropic.

On March 12 2022 fifty mulberry trees were planted in the grounds of Château Royal d'Amboise. A further one hundred and thirty will follow to complete the first stage of a much larger project to promote the cultivation of mulberry trees in the Loire Valley.

As inspirational rôle models, La Pucelle* (aka Joan of Arc) and her protector Yolande of Aragon who played a crucial rôle in the liberation of France are hard to beat. #BreakTheBias

Although it’s only an hour or so away from Amboise and although it’s been on the bucket list since forever, what with two years of Covid and a winter that seemed to go on forever, the time was never quite right. To misquote the Bible, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.

But for Anne of France, daughter of the Valois king Louis XI, the infamous Tudor dynasty in England would never have seen the light of day. Henry Tudor owed his throne to her. A fact he never denied. Without Anne, there would have been no Henry VIII, his six ill-fated wives, Anne Boleyn or her daughter Elizabeth I.