duminică, 19 august 2012

Château du Clos de Luce, Amboise, France, Day #2

Is the last place where Leonardo da Vinci lived, in Amboise, in a beautiful mansion with a huge and gorgeous garden. A place to create and to think, as well as relax in seclusion, despite the noise beyond the walls. We had to walk some roads to reach the place, is situated little bit far and high from the lower parking, and we needed about 3 hours to visit it all. I felt happy we found out about it, because it was very interesting to see what and where Leonardo da Vinci created in his last years of life.


He was invited to live here by Francis I, in 1516, and he crossed the Alpes on a mule, bringing with him The Mona Lisa itself (as well as some other two famous paintings), that he finished there.
 


The King of France welcomed Leonardo with the following words: 
"Here you will be free to dream, to think and to work."
 

The Château du Clos Lucé brings to life the botanical drawings, geological studies and the landscapes of the Master.


Spread out over a hectare, "Leonardo’s Garden" is an open-air museum, and it has been laid out and planted in the spirit of the paintings and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. We crossed the two-level bridge, created and designed by Leonardo, and we followed the botanical walk in his footsteps.


The lake is surrounded by a mysterious fog, coming out from the surface of the water. It was not such a big mystery, we saw the engineering but we still enjoyed it very much.
 

I truly loved this intimate corner in the garden, embellished with Piere de Ronsard roses.
 

On the walk you can try Leonardo’s inventions full-size. After seeing them at a smaller scale in the château, it was a big surprise to try them with our hands in the garden!
 

The helicopter, the tank, the fan-type machine gun, the paddle boat, the swing bridge – there are so many.  



Francis I appreciated this genius so much that he is said to have visited Leonardo often, using the underground passage linking the Château du Clos Lucé to the Royal Château d’Amboise.  


On our way back, we noticed this interesting house carved in stone, and after that we saw so may in that area! 
Well, it seems that we saw what we wanted to see, then we started to see what we needed to see...

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