Did the Château really have lions? Hard to take in, but, yes. You do wonder how they got here and how they were they fed along the way. The danger to life and limb alone beggars belief.

Enshrined in a law passed in 1950, the last Sunday in May is Mother’s Day in France. The French Republic officially pays tribute each year to French mothers during a day devoted to the celebration of Mother's Day.

On 27 May, in 1943, the National Council of the Resistance was set up.

There is an absolutely wonderful exhibition on at le Garage Art Centre (ends 30 June 2021) in Amboise. Absolutely wonderful. A real treat. It stirs the senses, emotions even, on so many levels.

In 1970, almost a hundred years after the sculptor Auguste Rodin was in Amboise, Alexander Calder, an entirely new sort of sculptor arrived, not, like Rodin, to sketch the Château, but to oversee the installation of one of his stabiles.

8 May, Victory in Europe Day (VE), Fête de la Victoire, a public holiday in France celebrates the end of the Second World War in Europe.

May 2nd marks the anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci in Amboise.

When Francois asked Estienne to print a series of books in Greek for his library, Estienne consulted Claude Garamont (pseudonym garamondus). Paris born and bred, Garamond, a pioneer type designer and punch cutter was one of the most respected and influential men in typographic history. His skill was in demand by all the finest printers in France.