In the heart of the France's Loire Valley, where fairytale châteaux sprout like flowers along the riverbanks, one castle stands out—not for its age or history alone, but for its sheer audacity. **Château de Chambord** is a glorious architectural riddle dressed as a royal hunting lodge, a place where spiral staircases lead to nowhere and towers rise like chess pieces on a limestone board.

You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just another quaint Tudor house on a cobbled English street—wooden beams, leaning windows, and a heavy oak door that looks like it has witnessed a few centuries. But this half-timbered cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon isn’t just old—it’s iconic. This is the house where William Shakespeare was born in 1564. And today, it stands as one of the most lovingly preserved literary relics in the world.