My host family took me to visit Chambord, a chateau about an hour away from Tours. It was very beautiful and very impressive. One of the rooms had white walls with intricate gold decorations that were absolutely stunning. I read a sign that talked about the clockmaker to a count or something, and was wondering why he would need his own personal clockmaker, until I noticed that there was an intricately, artistically decorated clock in most of the (many) rooms. The architecture of the castle itself was beautiful too. It was also interesting to learn about court etiquette. The virtual tour talked about the rituals of the king and queen getting out of bed in the morning and going to bed at night, ceremonies that would be attended by certain members of the court, if they ranked high enough. Overall, it was a very interesting and beautiful view into a totally different time.
