After two days away from the trains (oddly, I think I’ll miss the reminders from the French train app, SNCF), we hopped aboard a train to the Loire Valley from the large Montparnasse station, which luckily was walking distance from our Paris hotel.

I opted to stay in the small, charming town of Amboise instead of the bigger transportation hub of Tours, so we booked a car to get us from the train station in Tours to our hotel.

We arrived too early to to get into our room, so we toured the town and took in views of the Chateau d’Amboise before heading to Chateau du Clos Luce, the final home of Leonardo da Vinci. The house was built in 1471, and da Vinci was invited to stay there by his patron, Francis I, in 1516. It is thanks to Francis that France holds the Mona Lisa instead of Milan, because da Vinci brought it with him and died in Amboise.

The home has been lovingly restored, incorporating period pieces to give the feel of what it would have been like when da Vinci lived there. The house and grounds are a paean to his genius, with numerous displays showing his drawings along with models of what the inventions would look like. It is amusing to see some of the inventions that the master created for his patron, like a way to fill the bathtub with hot and cold water for the queen. Oh well, someone has to pay the bills.

The seven hectares of land include life-size models of his ideas come to life, including a tank with a rotating turret that some kids found very amusing. The gardens reminded us a bit of an engineering version of Grounds for Sculpture back home in New Jersey.

Happily, on a 100-degree day, there were two indoor, air-conditioned exhibits. One featured his thoughts and inventions regarding water, including two original sketches on loan from Milan. Another was an art immersion similar to the Van Gogh immersive experience that was very popular a few years ago.

It was well worth the visit, but I was happy we had a lovely garden and pool waiting for us at our hotel.

The next day was devoted to chateaux touring. We booked a small group tour (there were seven of us) to visit the Chambord and Chenonceau chateaus. Based on my research, these are among the best to see out of the 70+ chateaux open to the public. I understand why.

Chambord is the largest of the Loire chateaux with 440 rooms and a wall that extends 20 miles enclosing its 13,000-acre forest. It was built by Francis I as a hunting lodge, and it’s all about masculinity and the desire to impress. It’s certainly impressive as you get your first look of its 420-foot facade driving in. It reminded us of our first view of the “treasury” in Petra. You kind of catch your breath.

With its turrets and towers, expansive gardens and high ceilings, it’s visually stunning, but also cold and imposing. It didn’t make me want to stay there. Turns out, the king didn’t stay there much either. It was built on a swamp, so was probably not very pleasant, especially in summer.

We got another dose of Léonardo here, as he designed the iconic double helix staircase that leads to the top of the chateau. Unfortunately, Leo died before it was actually built.

In contrast to Chambord’s masculinity, Chenonceau is referred to as the “ladies’ chateau,” and I think we all agreed it was the more beautiful of the two, with two lovely gardens and a bridge spanning the River Cher.

There were eight women who had a hand in making the chateau what it is. Most interesting were the two women in Henri II’s life, his former nanny and future mistress, Diane de Poitiers, and his wife, Catherine de Medici.

Diane was responsible for building the famous bridge and creating gardens that were among the most spectacular of the time. Catherine made the gardens even more magnificent and raised the height of the gallery to throw glorious parties.

With the cozier rooms and beautiful gardens, I could see renting a room for a while. On a hot day, the chateau was actually quite comfortable.