Clos Luce

The Clos Lucé is the small palace where Leonardo da Vinci lived in France, for the last three or four years of his life.  He was brought there by King Francois I in 1519, and was the first non-royal resident in a couple of generations.  It seems like he was pretty good friends with the king and they had a good relationship.  Apparently da Vinci brought few of his own belongings with him (he traveled over the Alps on a donkey or something) but he brought his three favorite paintings, one of which was the Mona Lisa.

It's a nice, homey place despite being labeled as a palace.

Again, the Clos Lucé has different areas decorated in the styles of important periods to the palace, although I do believe the furniture is original.  Here we have the bedroom of Marguerite, queen of Navarre and sister of Francois I.  I think she left shortly before da Vinci came.

The chapel of Anne of Brittany, queen of France and mother-in-law to Francois I (Who I just now found out, in a super weird train of inheritance, gained the throne through the successive deaths of his third cousin, who was Anne's son, and then his cousin once removed - he was four generations removed from any direct decent from a king.  Weird.)

The bedroom of da Vinci.  He had a cool bed!

And finally the late-ish 18th century.

The real treat of this place, though, is that the whole basement is filled with his invention models, and the gardens display several of the lifesize models.  Here are a few:

Catapult 

Multi-directional machine gun

Some kind of hydraulic pump

A cool bridge (not that exciting but I like bridges!)

On the right is what they called a prototype for a car, and on the left is a bicycle I think (a bike seems pretty simple but I'll remind you that it wasn't introduced until more than 300 years after da Vinci's death).

Here is a "secret tunnel" that, according to legend, goes to the castle.  Da Vinci and Francois supposedly used it when they wanted to meet up without a lot of people knowing.  Side point: wouldn't it be pretty easy to find out whether this tunnel does in fact lead to the castle?  Why is that only "according to legend?"

Next we have the grounds, which are absolutely gorgeous.  I'm not sure if they appear now as they did in his time, but they're the complete opposite of the gardens at the castle.  These grounds are much more wild, unkempt, and rambling.  I think they're much nicer.  His large scale models are placed around the grounds as well.  This is immediately outside the palace, and the others are from farther out.  The grounds are huge.

This is a double-decker footbridge da Vinci created.  You can walk on the top or middle.

This is a helicopter,  but even with my 21st century perspective I have no idea how it's supposed to work.

(sorry about the orientation there, for some reason I can't change it)  Here is a tank - soldiers sit inside, close the door, rotate with that little wheel, and shoot out the tiny windows.

This is a "portable bridge."

This was definitely the best thing I saw in Amboise.  It was fascinating to see all the models - there are somewhere are 40 - and read about his innovations.