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Château du Clos Lucé - hot-air ballooning in Touraine
LE CHATEAU DU CLOS LUCE
Are you staying in Touraine?
The Art Montgolfières team offers you discounted tickets for the Château du Clos Lucé, to be purchased with your flight so you don't miss a moment of your stay in our beautiful Touraine region.
Touraine is a magnificent ancient province in central France. The region is rich in tourist attractions, with the Loire castles, local vineyards and typical villages, and the towns of Tours, Amboise, Loches, Blois ... are dynamic, atypical and offer plenty of activities for visitors.
Le Clos Lucé is located in the town of Amboise, famous for its château, which was the residence of several French kings during the Renaissance, and the scene of one of the most tragic episodes in French history during the Wars of Religion.
Le Clos Lucé: an exceptional historic site
The Château du Clos Lucé is best known today as the home of the famous Leonardo da Vinci. The château was listed as a historic monument in 1862.
Leonardo da Vinci was a true jack-of-all-trades: Italian painter, artist, organizer of shows and festivals, scientist, engineer, inventor, anatomist, sculptor, architect... and as such, could be defined as one of the geniuses of his time. He was interested in and practiced several disciplines at once, such as sculpture, drawing, music and painting, which he placed at the pinnacle of the arts. Leonardo embarked on a meticulous study of nature and human expression. For him, an image must represent both the person and the intentions of his mind.
In 1516, at the age of 64, Leonardo da Vinci left Rome, crossing Italy with all his sketchbooks and three famous paintings, now in the Louvre: La Joconde, La Vierge l'Enfant Jésus and sainte Anne et le Saint Jean Baptiste.
King François 1er gives him a pension of 700 écus d'or, and pays for the works he completes. The king made the Château du Clos Lucé available to him, where he stayed until his death. Leonardo is appointed "First Painter, Engineer and Architect to the King".
Getting close to reality
Some of the château's rooms were redecorated in the 20th - 21st centuries to resemble 16th-century rooms. We visit a bedroom, a kitchen and his workshop, as well as the Council Chamber, Anne de Bretagne's oratory and Marguerite de Navarre's bedroom, as they might have been in Leonardo's time.
A place to learn
Today, the Château du Clos Lucé is a place of knowledge and synthesis, designed to help young and old alike discover the world of Leonardo da Vinci, in a much more entertaining way than a traditional museum.
Some forty models based on Leonardo da Vinci's drawings are on display in four basement rooms. 3D animations can also be seen in the model rooms. They enable visitors to understand how the artist's inventions work, and to see them come to life.
In 2021, two new galleries dedicated to the master's work in architecture and painting will open to the public. You'll also be able to take advantage of a new experimental multimedia space, where you can fly over the Royal Palace of Romorantin, reconstructed in 3D, in Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines.
And to complete the visit, the gardens are fitted out with surprises that we leave you to admire it's up to you to discover them once you're there !