Château du Clos Lucé — Attraction in Loches

Chateau du Clos Luce has a claim to fame as it was where Leonardo Da Vinci lived out the last few years of his life. Leonardo was invited to the chateau to be close to the king at Amboise (a castle just 400m away) to provide guidance and counsel on affairs of technology, science and military.

The entry fee was hard to justify (23 Euro) given we had just visited Chateau Du Chambord (18 Euro) which was a massive castle with hours of things to see and do. Clos Luce had little actual remnants from Da Vinci, just copies of documents, copies of experiments and examples of things that 'may have been around'. A lot of the rooms were decorated from later centuries which detracted from the experience. For fluent french speakers there is more to offer with guided tours, however if you are limited to English with a hint of French, I would invest the time elsewhere.

The gardens around the chateau are gorgeous and have all of Da Vinci's experiments where you can see, touch and play with each of them. It would be recommended if you have kids, otherwise its and expensive way to spend 2 hours.

It was great to see once, just hard to justify spending 23 Euro when you have so many other amazing options to explore within 50km such as (Chenonceau, Amboise, and Chambord to...

Oh Wow! This place is just mesmerizing. More of a quirky shrine to the life and works of the genius that was Leonardo da Vinci than a conventional "Chateau de Loire" and all the better for it. The "chateau", more a manor house than a conventional chateau, has just 8 furnished rooms and a basement with 40 excellent models of Leonardo's key inventions - takes just a little over an hour. The Leonardo Park is just wonderful and then takes circa 1.5 hours to wander amongst 35 stops if you read each panel and listen to each sound station. The "cherry on top" is the utterly brilliant (new for this season) multimedia exhibition which uses the latest cutting edge technologies to deliver an immersive experience of Leonardo's architecture and art taking over 1 hour. Clos Luce is an excellent and educational experience that contrasts and complements other nearby attractions such as the mind-blowing vastness of Chambord or the extreme "tweeness" of Chenonceax. Miss Clos Luce at...

This was an unexpected surprise when planning my trip. The building has been nicely restored, there are many displays and reconstructions, and the grounds are great. The displayes include not only furniture and art but also replicas of many of da Vincis inventions. Be sure to check out the chapel. The grounds are great for wandering. They include working copies of many of his machines as well as lakes, creeks, places to sit and contemplate. Look north over the building to the chapel on the top of the hill at Chateau Amboise to see Leonardos final resting place (then go to the Chateau and look back towards this red building to see Leonardos last residence from his grave). Only down side is that there is not photography allowed inside the house. On the walk to this site (there is really no parking; so, walk there) look at the troglodyte houses built into...