Max Ernst, the French Surrealist, died on his birthday, 1 April 1976. He loved the irony. It was, you might say, surreal.

Anne of Beaujeu, Regent of France, invited a young man with the extraordinary name of Perkin Warbeck to the French Court at Château Amboise.

On 18 February 1478, George, duke of Clarence, accused of treason, was executed in the Tower of London on the orders of his brother King Edward IV of England.

Hard to take in but there he was, the man himself in the flesh so to speak, at Château Clos Lucé, Amboise Friday 2 February telling a captivated audience how Léo came about.

Ever since William (known as The Conqueror in his home town of Caen, The Bastard in London) brought his language and culture to England, the English have always hot footed it to France.

It turns out that Yolande of Valois, who was born in to her impoverished father’s Court in Tours, was responsible for The Cult of The Turin Shroud.

Not until all that long ago, kings of England declared they had a claim to the French throne.

The engineering genius (no other word will do) Gustave Bönickhausen was born in France December 1832 and died in France December 1923.