It will come as a revelation to many (me) but not to Shakespeare scholars that the genius story-teller from Stratford-on-Avon was a huge fan of Rabelais the genius storyteller from Chinon-sur-Vienne and that the inspiration for some of his crude, comic characters came from the crude, comic characters created by Rabelais seventy years earlier.

One of the oldest families of the French nobility took its name from the town. After surviving for five hundred years, it finally spluttered out in 1656. Its Arms are included on the town Arms. Loyal members over successive generations fought for king and country.

The library of Queen Charlotte of Savoy who lived in Château Amboise until she died there in 1483 was the cradle of what is now the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF).

When Francis I appointed Leonardo da Vinci Premier Painter, Architect and Engineer to the Court of France the event heralded the beginning of most famous art gallery in the world.

Visitors to Château Royal d’Amboise may wonder who the Coats of Arms on the walls leading to the ticket office belong to.

Of all the royal châteaux along the Loire, that of Amboise was the most easily defended. It was the reason why it was chosen as the royal nursery.

Louis was a can-do king. A high achiever. He was also secretive, suspicious to the point of paranoia and, very mildly speaking, misanthropic.

On March 12 2022 fifty mulberry trees were planted in the grounds of Château Royal d'Amboise. A further one hundred and thirty will follow to complete the first stage of a much larger project to promote the cultivation of mulberry trees in the Loire Valley.