Loire Valley Pictures

The Loire Valley is in central France and is an area with amazing castles. The history of this area is fascinating. Leonardo Da Vinci spent his last years here in a mansion called Clos Luce, which was given to him by King Francis I so that they could hang out and chat about important things. IBM has built many of Leonardo's inventions for people to investigate while visiting the mansion.

When Hitler invaded France during World War II, the French people snuck many famous works of art out of the Louvre Museum in Paris and hid them in the castles in the Loire Valley. They made replicas, which they put in the Louvre, and the Germans never knew the difference. Chenonceau castle, the one straddling the river, was used to help people escape from German occupied France, which was north of the river, to the free part of France, which was south of the river.

The last castle that you'll see in the pictures, Cheverny, is occupied by the Hurault family, who havelived there for centuries. Back to France Pictures