Perched dramatically above the rooftops of the Loire Valley town below, the Tour Charles VIII and the Louis XII façade of the Château d'Amboise loom from this early-era French real-photo postcard — the river glinting silver in the far distance behind battlements that once sheltered Leonardo da Vinci in his final years. Printed by the celebrated Neurdein Frères (ND) house of Paris, this card dates to the golden age of French cartophilie, when Sunday strollers mailed architectural studies like this one with the same casual affection we swipe vacation photos today. The château itself carries centuries of French royal drama: Charles VIII was born and died here, and Francis I invited an aging Leonardo to live nearby at the Clos Lucé, where the maestro spent his last three years. The heavy stone fortifications, the corbelled turrets, and the long wall sloping down into the village below are rendered with the sharp clarity of a glass-plate negative.