The Good Life France Magazine Winter 2018 | Page 9

Celebrate 500 years of the French Renaissance in the Loire Valley

1519 was a key year

Leonardo da Vinci the, the very definition of a Renaissance man, died in the Loire Valley on 2 May, 1519 at the Chateau du Clos Lucé.

Catherine de Medici was born in Florence that year and grew up to be a major figure of the Renaissance, a patron of the arts, her legacy lives on in the Loire Valley.

And, the first stone of the magnificent Chateau of Chambord was laid, commissioned by King Francis I, known as

the father of the French Renaissance. The chateau is a perfect example of all that the Renaissance came to be.

In 2019, the Centre-Val de Loire region celebrates 500 years of Renaissance since this key date, with more than 500 events taking place throughout the area.

Exhibitions, workshops, concerts and much more will take place, in what is surely an ongoing French love affair with the arts and culture…