Leonardo da Vinci and Renaissance perfume.

In 1912, visiting a relative in Tours, François Coty, the perfume man, fell in love with the Loire Valley.

In November 1791 Wordsworth popped over to France to see the Revolution.

In 1496, King Charles VIII had a dream.

In Valençay, about an hour away from Amboise, is a monument commemorating ninety-one men and thirteen women agents of F Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who died, many in concentration camps, for working with the French Resistance.

Michel de Gast was Captain of the famous Forty-Five bodyguards of Henry III.

Who now remembers the woman who took on Napoleon and rattled his cage?

‘Leave it to George’ , a polite way of saying ‘pass the buck’, was once a popular saying in the UK and in America, however it originated in France.