Chateau du Clos Lucé

I found the Chateau du Clos Lucé to be a beautiful and peaceful jewel in the center of the city.  The chateau is 400 meters from Chateau Amboise and when you enter the gates off the street you are transported to a shady, serene oasis.  The house is made of pink brick and tufa stone and the interior is beautiful.  Click here for a link to the website to see the interior.  This chateau felt the most "homey" to me.  A beautiful interior and a park like garden.  

 Leonardo da Vinci spent his last three years here after coming from Italy on a donkey through the alps.  He brought with him three works of art including the Mona Lisa and his plans for his inventions.  In the basement of the chateau are scale models of many of his inventions and in the garden are life size models of some.  The man was way ahead of his time.

 The courtyard gardens are beautiful and overlook the shady park. 

This was his version of a tank.  It spun around with guns on all sides. 

 A rapid fire canon.

There was so much more to this park/grounds of the Chateau.  It was so wonderful to wander through and enjoy interacting with his inventions and the peaceful scenery (and shade) in which to do it in. I would definately put this chateau in my top five.  It was so interesting as well as beautiful.