American Independence was fuelled by two Englishmen. The first was John Wilkes, few in America have ever heard of. In 1763, charged with seditious libel (criticising the King), he left for Paris where he lived for four years in Hôtel de Saxe, Rue du Colombier (now part of the chic Rue Jacob in the 6th arrondissement).

Many artists paint what they see. Max painted what he couldn't see. He looked at a floorboard and saw a forest. He looked at a grain silo and saw a monster.

I became familiar with Château Saumur, or at least its image, in college many, many years ago (1972) while training to be an art teacher.

He imagined vertical flight long before the necessary technology to make it work saw the light of day.

It is not too fanciful to say that the world owes a huge debt of gratitude to Francis I, King of France for Leonardo's Notebooks, or at least some of them.

Francesco Melzi was an Italian aristocrat. His family took the name from their home town, Melzo near Milan (Francesco has a street named after him).

John Evelyn visited Amboise in 1644.

In 1494 Leonardo da Vinci started working for Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan.