David's Diary: Monday, August 20, 2001

Loire Valley: Amboise and Cheverny

Few people know that Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life in the Loire town of Amboise. Leonardo's infinite curiosity to learn how things worked including dissecting dead people in order to learn how the human body worked. Such activities were frowned upon by the Italian authorities that Leonardo fled from to be befriended by Francois I of France.

Leonardo lived in Le Close-Lucé in the hills of Amboise. He arrived at Le Close-Lucé by donkey carrying paintings, including the Mona Lisa. While there he continued to paint, draw, and invent. The building today consists of two parts. The first shows the ground and upstairs rooms as they would have appeared when Leonardo was living there. The basement contains a large number of models of inventions that Leonardo had plans for. It is impressive to see how far ranging was Leonardo's thinking -- the biggest thing holding back his ideas was the lack of a suitable power source in the 1500s.

Vins de Montlouis et de Touraine

While The Loire is known for its Châteaux it is also known for its wine. We avoided the tourist caves along the highway and ventured into the hills to find a winery. We found Vins de Montlouis et de Touraine and not long after we pulled up the proprietor showed up to give us a tasting. We liked the white wine and bought a few bottles to take back to Paris. We asked about the wine making process and shortly we were viewing holding tanks before being taken underground to the cave.

Wines age best when the temperature is cool and constant. For centuries wine makers have been using caves in the hillside to store wine because the ground provides natural refrigeration with constant temperature. The cave at Vins de Montlouis et de Touraine went back more than 100 meters and had wines dating from 1979 to the present. In talking with the propririetor we discovered that his father started the winery, but it has been expanded to four times its original size. The specialty of the vineyard is sweet white wine which is sold in Paris, London, and New York.

Cheverny

After our vineyard tour we spent an hour at a local aquarium comparing what we knew from the Vancouver aquarium to the local fish and wildlife of The Loire. Then we headed off to Cheverny, another famous Loire Châteaux. Karalee and I wanted to tour at least one Châteaux and had never seen Cheverny so we toured the inside over the protests of the children. It was worth the visit just to see the tapestries, which are among the best preserved in all of France.

Tin Tin Exhibition

Tin Tin is a well-known series of French books available in many other languages. When we were shopping for books in London, Kevin purchased several Tin Tin books and in Paris he has even been reading French versions. Kevin's interest in Cheverny picked up when he learned that the Châteaux was used as the basis for the Châteaux in the drawings of the Tin Tin books. There is a special Tin Tin Exhibition on the grounds of Cheverny. We visited the exhibition to see videos, follow clues from one of the stories, and see examples from Tin Tin films that use the grounds of Cheverny for inspiration.