Developments at Clos Luce

The front of the Chateau du Clos Lucé as we left.

The Chateau du Clos Lucé has been owned for over a century by the Saint Bris family. It is famous for being the last home of the great Leonardo da Vinci. For many years now the property has been open to visitors, and recently the family have employed a wonderfully dynamic and switched on marketing manager called Gaël Ibramsah. Thanks mainly to him, and the 500th anniversary in 2019 of the death of Leonardo resulting in lots of special events happening to mark the occasion, visitor numbers have topped half a million.

Inside the new gallery.

 

Last Friday we went to a special after hours invitation only event to view the new gallery dedicated to the life and works of Leonardo. It is housed in the old Guillemot photographic chemicals factory next door to the lovely chateau, which the Saint Bris family snapped up when it closed due to the impact of digital photography. Guillemot were the first producers in the world of photographic paper and the last producers in France. Now landscaped as a lovely park, the grounds are crisscrossed by a stream which has been divided into multiple channels as part of the former functions of the factory.

Gaël introducing the new gallery.

 

Clos Lucé has now become a one-stop shop for all things Leonardo. There is plenty of space in the garden for kids to run around and the interior of the house is now very nicely appointed to give you a feel for when Leonardo lived there. In various outbuildings and the garden you can see well made models of the machines and devices that Leonardo sketched in his note books.

The Guillemot factory manager's house. The next big project at Clos Lucé will be to turn this building into a 12 room hotel.

 

Gaël Ibramsah, the marketing manager, has offered us the chance to bring one of the Tractions one day and do photographs in the grounds. He also tried to convince Simon to grow a big bushy beard so he could play Leonardo at events. Gaël pointed out that Leonardo was a great big man, very unusual for his time, and Simon, with his long wavy silver hair, would be perfect -- if only he would let the beard grow. I commented that since Leonardo was a vegetarian, any resemblance probably stops before dinner.

This building, the Halle Eiffel, behind the chateau, makes it obvious that half the site was until recently industrial. This is was where Guillemot stored their packaging materials.

It is perhaps inevitable given his cult status that the whole focus is on Leonardo, with other former owners and residents such as Anne of Brittany barely rating a mention, despite it being their home for longer. However, I think the chateau complex is currently run in a way that can make the owners proud.