Keeper of the Key

The day has gone, the night has come
The halls lie deathly still.
Till morning wake, and silence take
these empty rooms to fill.

Alone I stay, amid the fray
of day long passed by.
While others sleep
a duty I keep, to clean these empty halls.

Every floor, every window
every empty stall.
I've seen them twice, three times
a thousand, I cannot recall.

Cyclical in nature, yet certain as can be,
A habit and a duty to the keeper of the key.

France - part 13, Ambois in search of Da Vinci, Part 1

When one comes to France, one comes with the preconceived understanding that he or she will see the works of Leonardo DaVinci - The Mona Lisa, Saint John the Baptist, among other things.  It is easy to forget, however, that the Master only came here in the last years of his life, and died here far from his birthplace in Italy.  All the same, the French loved and continue to love Da Vinci, and the place he stayed in those last years is now a museum called Clos Luce in Ambois.

The town of Ambois is a small area nestled beneath the shadow of a great castle and a great old house.   The city itself probably only has 20,000 people living in it, but it was without a doubt one of the most charming places we visited while in France.  It was here in the 1500’s that King Francis I invited Leonardo Da Vinci to stay his remaining years in the Chateau Clois Luce.  There he would be free to pursue whatever his heart desired, with free reign of the house and a good amount of money under the simple condition that the king be able to speak to him every day.

The friendship between Francis I and Leonardo Da Vinci is perhaps one of the more fascinating parts of French history.   The great man was in the last years of his life, yet he had already accomplished so much that he could have probably continued to live in Italy.  As it was though, France was more stable, and the invitation was enough to convince Da Vinci to saddle up a donkey and made the trek over the Alps alone.    According to historical fact, he brought two of his favorite things with him: the Mona Lisa and his still unfinished painting of Saint John the Baptist.   So began the tale of how those paintings came to France, and so too begins the tale of the end of Da Vinci’s life.

Leonardo's bedroom, it is here that the great man died.

This was the bedroom for the mistress of the house, next door to Leonardo's room

Painting of Mary on the chapel of the house, interestingly, Leonardo didn't paint anything while he was here.

One of the "modern" salons, but Da Vinci finished Saint John here when it was a studio

I always wanted to see Clois Luce being a fan of Leonardo myself, so we took the opportunity to walk up the street and see the house while we were there.  At first, I expected it to be like the Chateau we were staying in since both were built around the same time.   This was a much larger house, but nice and simple brick and stone with a huge park spread out behind it.  The house was owned by the French royal family, but Da Vinci lived and worked there for the last years of his life … he even died there and is interred at the castle on the hill.

This is a copy of the Mona Lisa, but DaVinci had the real one here at one time.  This is as close as you can get to the real thing while in France.

Inside the chateau there is a distinctive renaissance feeling.  It is warm and inviting and it feels as if the great Leonardo Da Vinci merely stepped out for a moment.  The bottom level is chock full of small scale models of his various inventions which were built to his specifications by IBM.  All of these models supposedly work and include a machine gun, a parachute, a flying machine, a tank, an Archimedes screw, steam powered machines, ball bearings, bridges and canals, a paddleboat and a car (yes, really).

This is a "machine gun"

A Tank

Underground passage going to the garden.  They had a cut out of DaVinci down there

Bicycle and car

Parachute

Life preserver

Looking at these things, I felt a sense of remarkable privilege to be in this house and in the “presence” of such a great man.  He truly was far, far ahead of his time and looking at his inventions I wondered what he would think of the marvels which our modern world has expanded from their original conception. 

Upstairs in the rooms, there were several beautiful ones, including a chapel, a dining and eating area and Da Vinci’s bedroom.  The dining room was the original home of the Mona Lisa and Saint John when Da Vinci worked on them, and he converted some of the other rooms into studios while he finished the latter.  There were copies on the wall, neither of which were nearly as good as the real ones in the Louvre.  Still, it was fun to see them up close.

I had to stop myself from gawking as a Chinese couple sat in Da Vinci’s chair, again no one was there to stop them.   But I moved on and stayed a moment in his bedroom.  It’s a simple room, simple bed all overlooking the garden.  Beyond, I could just make out the castle where Francis I lived, almost walking distance from Da Vinci.  There’s a painting on the wall showing Francis I at Da Vinci’s side as he died.   The king has such a look of compassion and sadness in his eyes.  He cradles the great man as if he were the most precious thing on earth. 

A painting of DaVinci's death.  Interestingly, the King was supposedly not there when the man died, but you can see the likeness of the room.

 The room in the painting does match the real thing, and it is exactly where he died.   It is incredible to think about the friendship these two men had.  Francis I was a warrior king, seeking to expand his nation’s influence, but he allowed Da Vinci the exact freedoms he so desperately deserved after so long and prosperous a career.  In return, Da Vinci brought France his incredible intellect, and helped shape the nation’s future with his own influence.  This was only the beginning of the museum, however.  We still had the extensive gardens to explore. 

France - Part 12, Chambord Castle and setting out

The next day we were making preparations to get the car.  Driving in France was not my idea at all.  In fact, I wasn’t sure at first why we had to.   It looked like trains went almost everywhere we wanted to go (and they did) and after our experience with the drivers in Paris I was very nervous.  

It's always strange to set out into a new country, especially in a car, and even more so when you are sick.  My poor Dad was sick the whole time, and I was hit pretty hard myself.  I've never been sick on a vacation like this before.  Luckily, the medications we found knocked it out of me pretty quick.  

My dad was much more nervous than I because he was driving – sick no less.   Thankfully, our guides had given us a navigational system to take and this little computer would be so essential for the many days to come.

I might have been our “navigator” on this trip, but honestly I just took cues from the system.  I cannot recommend enough how crucial it is to have such a thing if you are driving in France.  Street names seem to change on a whim every few blocks, and finding signs is hard if not impossible.  There are a lot of round-a-bouts, and it's very easy to get turned around and go the wrong way as we did the second we tried to second guess the GPS.    Thankfully, the thing realized how stupid we were and immediately re-calculated us back on track.

We drove through beautiful and picturesquely pastoral countrysides with farms and quaint villages all around.  It is here that I think I understand the need for a car.  With trains and mass transit, you have to fumble with times and luggage, then haul yourself back to a central location.  With a car, you can take everything you need with you and aren’t beholden to anyone’s schedule but your own.   We got a closer look at life in France by traveling in a car than we would have otherwise.

Our first destination was Chambord, a huge castle built by Francis I as a sort of hunting castle.  As my first official castle, it was quite impressive on the outside and inside, and very traditional.  Looking at it from the grounds, I could see white towers and blue roofs, with tall spires of carvings rising up to the sky.  Inside, it was all huge and cavernous rooms with large fireplaces and a very thick smell of wood smoke.  Such places get extremely cold, and these fireplaces were essential for warmth (no fires were lit when we were there). 

The castle benefits from another unusual benefactor, our friend Leonardo Da Vinci.  He designed many of the towers and features, including a double spiral staircase in the center.  The design was such that a legion could be going up the stairs while another was going down at the same time.   Looking at the stairway, you realize it’s actually a helix, a very ingenious design.  

There were other things to see, like ancient tapestries and carvings.  The more “modern” rooms dated from Louis XIV – XVI and I could see the impression of Versailles style in them. 

On the whole, my first trip to an official castle was an interesting experience.  This was certainly not a Disney castle, but a MAN'S castle built by men to do manly things.   Interestingly, later kings would make it a little more inviting, but on the whole it was a very sparse and Spartan place.   After having a delicious burger at the restaurant outside the castle, we got back to the car and traveled through forested roads to our destination of Ambois.  

Our lodging in Ambois was probably one of the nicest we had on the trip.  We were located at the Le Cos d’Ambois which was an old chateau converted in the 90’s to a hotel.   I had a beautiful and very spacious room overlooking a large lawn area and a pool.   Too bad I was sick and didn’t bring a swimsuit, because it was fairly warm.  Dad had to sweat a bit trying to get into the place because the driveway was only slightly more wide than the car.  Even making the turn was a sharp k-shaped affair with cars honking behind us.  Insurance is horribly expensive for renting in France, so naturally Dad didn’t want to pay a thousand dollars (yes that’s how much it would have been).

I will say this of the Le Cos d’Ambois, as beautiful as the hotel is, their food is deplorable.  We had the worst meal of our trip there, and I won’t go into any detail other than to say it was like chewing old socks.  The old adage we’d been told was when in doubt, order an omelet while in France.  The chef there couldn't even do eggs because they were burnt to a crisp. 

This was a first, and the only time in France we were met with such a problem, but it's not a trip to some foreign country without at least one bad meal.  With a day where I saw my first real castle, beautiful countrysides and a lovely town, to have a bad meal as the only complaint is a lovely diversion.