Catherine, painted as the wicked witch of the west by some biographers, was loved by her daughters Elisabeth and Claude, her son-in-law Charles (Claude’s husband) her sister-in-law Marguerite, Diane of France (Henry II’s illegitimate daughter) and Christine her beloved grand-daughter.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Tribute.

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.