Five hundred years ago, Amboise was the seat of power and the final stomping grounds of Leonardo da Vinci. Today, the benevolent city on the banks of the Loire seduces history buffs, cyclists and wine lovers alike. Stately plane trees line the Loire River in the middle of Amboise, throwing…
"You will never, ever find a tarte Tatin that resembles the true tarte Tatin of the Tatin sisters," says Jean-Paul Martin Cousin. Even if you travel to Lamotte-Beuvron, the Loire Valle town where the mouth-watering caramelized apple pie originated, sadly you can no longer find a genuine tarte Tatin because…
A woman is often inconstant He who trusts her is a fool indeed. --Francis I, according to Victor Hugo Francis I, who reigned from 1515 to 1547, has an outsized place in France's history. The swashbuckling king with a legendary appetite for life reveled in earthly delights as well…
The grapes were just the right height for four-year-old Maxence and Quentin, two years his senior Normally they come from far and wide -- the US, Japan, even Australia -- but this year the punters donning boots and parkas to harvest Loire Valley grapes for the fun of it are…
Chinon's horsetrack wrapped up its racing year on August 15 in a style befitting the world-renowned wine center.The traditional race bearing the name of the local wine federation rewarded the winning jockey with his weight in cases of the best Chinon wines.A red-robed muckety-muck of the Confrérie des Entonneurs officiated at…
The partial opening offers an excellent chance to enjoy sites without the three-deep crowds visitors have come to expect, especially in the summer
Two cities cannot be twinned within the same country, but the Loire Valley town of Amboise and Cahors in southwestern France have become joined at the hip thanks to their shared adventures with a historic grape variety known as Malbec in Cahors and Côt in the Tours region. Cahors has…
A story about Leonardo speaks to both his love of nature and fascination with flight. When at a market, Da Vinci would often pity the cooped-up birds that were on sale, plunk down the asking price for them, then release them into the air. Leonardo had a legendary obsession with…
Viewers put on a headset and get intimate with Lisa The Mona Lisa is conspicuously absent from the Louvre's retrospective of Leonardo da Vinci, but the world-famous Florentine makes up for it by holding court in a virtual reality experience. Organizers of the blockbuster show featuring 10 of the Renaissance…
The Louvre museum has kicked off its blockbuster retrospective of Leonardo da Vinci to mark 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master. Some 240,000 people have already reserved their place in line for the four-month exhibition, the biggest ever organized to showcase the Tuscan polymath's indelible contributions to…