One important realization is scale: this small woman lived in a very large world. Each château is really a small city, inhabited by hundreds, if not thousands, of people. The image on the right is a model of the Chateau des duc de Nantes, and below are the main wings and tower walls.
The rooms are large, the furniture I saw (with qualifications that most is not original) is massive. Distances are quite large. It is hard to understand how the court could have traveled so much, so far, so often. And she was frequently pregnant! My train rides from place to place were lovely and comfortable, through beautiful farmland and occasional woods, and took several hours each. Horses, carriages, litters, and even barges are much more cumbersome and slower means of transportation.
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