Peregrinations

Stars of the Loire – Leonardo and Jagger

Amboise, on the banks of the Loire. Up top on the rock, the château lords it over the river and oatmealhued town. From the castle terrace, anyone tall enough to see over the edge is at once overcome with a manifest destiny to rule at least France. He or she may also spot La Fourchette. Mick Jagger’s French domain is two miles away. He has been seeking refuge there since 1980. (Locals reportedly appreciate him, though preferred it when he arrived with Jerry Hall.)

Anyway, Sir Mick is presently the district’s “famous person”, the latest Renaissance man to distinguish Amboise. This is the Loire Valley, stamping ground of monarchs for centuries. As such, it was the cradle of the Renaissance in France, notably under François I. He was raised at Amboise, growing tall and handsome. In 1515, he went warmongering in Italy. While there, he was knocked out by the flourishing Italian Renaissance. He brought back its key ideas. More than that (and here’s the point), he also returned with the greatest of all Renaissance men.

Leonardo da Vinci (pictured) arrived in Amboise in 1516 – 500 years ago this year. At 64, he had crossed the Alps on a mule, with the in his saddlebag. François installed him at Clos Lucé, a brick manor house near the château. In return, the artist became the king’s sage and mentor. He also went to work. As everyone knows, Leonardo wasn’t merely one of history’s greatest painters. He was also better than everyone at engineering, botany, optics, architecture, urbanism, mathematics, music and everything else. In the three Amboise years until his death in 1519, he planned the draining of marshes, a new city, a vast canal and, perhaps, the château of Chambord.

Contemporary Clos Lucé kicks off its 500th anniversary commemoration in May (vinci-closluce.com). Remarkably, the place is little changed since Leonardo’s time. Now a celebration of the fellow, house and grounds are lively with 20th-century models of notions he had aeons before. The spectacle is astounding. Here are innovatory weapons of mass destruction (tanks, machine guns), but also conceptions of solar power and plate tectonics, helicopters, cars, the carjack and the beveltrundle change-speed mechanism.

And then – imagine this! – the creator of

was also a worldclass party-planner. For François, he laid on an evening with youngsters dressed as angels, a vaulting re-creation of the sky, music and a mobile model lion that, when thumped on the chest, disgorged lilies.

The worlds of Leonardo and Sir Mick would, in short, have overlapped, to the undoubted pleasure of both. The 500th is the time to go. As if we really needed an excuse.