This image needs no introduction. It’s the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus sitting on her mother’s lap in a very awkward position that’s for sure. It may be a trick of the light but it looks as if Saint Anne’s head was added later, it seems somehow detached as if she is a figment of Mary’s imagination or a ghost but if art is anything, it’s subjective.

When Anne of Brittany’s husband, Charles VIII, was away she preferred to live at Clos Lucé as opposed to Château Amboise. Away from the hustle and bustle of Court it was quiet here. Anne needed quiet to grieve the loss of all her seven children.

This image shows the tapestry in the staircase at Clos Lucé. It looks to be a small part of a much larger tapestry. Eagle eyed visitors note that the left hand side has been cut.

We couldn’t let the 42nd anniversary of the first broadcast of Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy go by without a mention. Why the number 42? Stephen Fry, a close friend of Douglas, could, but won’t, tell us. He is the only one who knows how supercomputer Deep Thought came up with 42 as the ‘Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything’. OR IS HE?

Marguerite de Navarre, sister of Francis I, had a lovely view from her bedroom window in Chateau Clos Lucé. She could just see St Hubert’s chapel peeping between the trees. This image somehow catches the essence of Amboise and its lovely light.

In 1499, six-year-old Marguerite, her four-year-old brother François and their mother Louise of Savoy joined the court in Amboise. Referring to themselves as The Trinity, they lived in Clos Lucé for nine years, six years before Leonardo moved in. Marguerite and Leonardo were her brother’s closest confidants.

Leonardo’s bedroom is a restoration but what about the bed? Visitors whisper in reverence ‘that’s the bed where he died’ but is it? Nothing to say it is or is not in the tourist literature but not at all implausible it is authentic. Many chateaux along the Loire have older beds.

Monarchs gives rise to Styles. One has only to think Victorian or Georgian. People know instinctively what the Louis-Philippe (1830 to 1848) style is. They may not be able to describe it but can recognise it. It’s pretty, dainty, delicate, elegant yet practical.