Leonardo arrived here in 1516 and only lived around 3 years in this house before his death, but he left a lot of his works there. He owned the house, and enjoyed using a secret passageway between it and the royal residence.

The spiral staircase is the centerpiece of this chateau, one of the most “awe inspiring Renaissance constructions” a collaborative effort by French and Italian artists. The outer walls each have a smaller spiral staircase in the corners, as well as four on the corners of the inner sanctuary. Here we learned about famous men from 1515 to 1883, each with their contribution to the chateau. Four of the famous men had their own emblems, a porcupine, an ermine, a swan with an arrow going through it and a salamander.

We did not explore the gardens much, because it was too hot.

After visiting Flavigny-sur-Ozerain on the way, we ended Tuesday with a visit to the Château of Blois and the nearby Maison de la Magie.

The Loire River has a lot of history. It has separated Southern France (where we have been) from Northern France (where we will be) for centuries, running east-west in a not straight line. We spent two days along the Loire with Marc and Joëlle.

Blois castle was a beautiful area, with architecture from three different eras. We were given devices to learn more, but in both languages the devices were confusing. If you saw the right place to scan, you could look at the room as had been in the past, with furniture, in 3-D. This made walking around difficult, or perhaps interesting, because other visitors were seeing things that were not there physically, so you could walk right in front of them and they would not notice. However, if they were just listening, not looking, the other visitors could get angry if you walked in front of them. At subsequent sites, we decided not to use these augmented reality devices when offered.

This stop was not planned, but Brian talked about it so much that Marc and Joëlle decided to deviate. This small town was nice, fun to wander around. Marc got a Geocache, of course.

In part because of the movie, but mostly because Joëlle remembered the beauty of the shop, we visited the famous candy store in town. It is also a museum. The displays were beautiful and informative, if you wanted to learn the history of candy making using anise, and one section asked you to test your sense of smell. Joëlle’s sense was the best of all four of us.