Day 8 by Claire

Today, we went to the Château de Chambord and to a cookie and cake factory. When we arrived at the castle after our 45 minute bus ride, we got “histopads” to lead us on our audio and visual tour. In each room, there were scannable coins that allowed us to see what the castle would have looked like in the 16th century. Inside the 16th century visuals were interactive objects containing collectible coins. Once you collected all eight coins, you could put in your email to receive a foldable castle. The histopads gave us more information about each room through the built in audio and allowed us to pinpoint our location in the castle. Once we finished the tour, we ate a picnic lunch outside of the castle. After our lunch, we drove to a cookie factory. Inside the factory, we watched a presentation about the history of the company including a video explaining how the cookies are made. At the end of the presentation, we made flour and butter ourselves. We made the flour by grinding down wheat grain and made the butter by shaking creme in baby food jars. Before leaving the factory, we bought lots of cookies and cakes for both our French and American families. Then, we took an hour long bus ride back to our exchange students. When we got back to Tours, Anna, our exchange students, and I went to a bakery. We took our cookies and almond croissants to a park. We hung out for a while where we observed ducks and water chickens next to a pond.