Walk: 15km; total: 161km
After breakfast we visited the Châreau du Clos Lucé and Leonardo da Vinci Park. Wow, a really awesome experience. Wendy did not realise the genius was responsible for so many great ideas and the fact he was not only the greatest painter to ever live but was also an amazing scientist, sculptor, draughtsman, theorist and engineer.
The Château is only 400m from the Royal Castle and began life in 1471 as the Château du Cloux. In the autumn of 1516, Leonardo crossed the Alps, bringing with him his manuscripts, and three masterpiece paintings: the Mona Lisa, the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and Saint John the Baptist and took up residence at the Clos Lucé. These three masterpieces eventually ended up at the Louvre. da Vinci died in 1519, aged 67 and was interred in the crypt of the collegiate church of Saint Florentine at the Royal Castle. St Florentine was destroyed during the Wars of Religion and excavations uncovered what were thought to be be da Vinci’s bones. These bones were transferred to the Castle’s Chapel and remain there today. The Chapel of St Hubert is undergoing renovations so Wendy was unable to visit, but Greg saw the tomb in 2019.
We wandered through his living quarters and workshops seeing his painting, sculpting, and drawing. Also on display were models of the many different ideas Da Vinci came up with, like multi-barreled canons, “helicopters”, parachutes and a “tank”; in the 1500s! We then walked for about an hour around the garden/park area that is dedicated to showing off his ideas. There were many of his types of bridges on display. However the most interesting was the hall displaying his anatomical drawings and ideas behind them. Da Vinci also did autopsies so that he could fully comprehend the human body. Following this idea the hall even had an autopsy room with a fake body. They kept it very mild so that people are not too disturbed by the experience.
We ambled home via the Carrefour and purchased some lunch and dinner makings and ate in our room. After a rest, we set out again, this time to visit the Pagoda de Chanteloup. This is an Asian looking building, built in 1775, stands 44m high, is held up by a ring of 16 columns and 16 pillars. It has seven storeys, each constructed as a dome, with each storey accessible by a steep, narrow staircase with 142 steps all the way to the top of the pagoda! The staircase is made from mahogany, with exception of the first floor, that being of stone. It has a cast iron bannister. The gardens used to be very extensive (8,000 acres) with classical lines, streams, canals and ponds. However, now it only consists of a semi-circle shaped pond and a small Chinese garden. The great canal has been turned into a lawned area. There is still a 28 acre forest park adjacent the pond area.
Our legs were a bit weary as we made our way back to the hotel. Wendy is looking forward to an entire day devoted to rest, no walking and no riding, like that’s ever going to happen. We have three nights coming up in Orleans, where she intends to give it a try. After reading Greg’s blog from 2019, it seems we have a bit of an arduous ride tomorrow. It is listed as only 35km so shouldn’t be too bad. That will allow us a leisurely pace to get to Blois about 2pm when we can check in.
POOR WI-FI (AGAIN) PREVENTS MORE PHOTOS!
Chateau du Clos Lucé
Da Vinci’s living quarters
One of DV early bicycles
Chateau grounds
Pagoda of Chanteloup
