The Renaissance is associated in our minds with Italy, and rightly so. It is as though the sun had risen first from the Adriatic, but while it was noon in Florence dawn was touching the French hills, and for France the sixteenth century was to be the century of the Renaissance. The peasant must live; the land was still the seigneur's, and rent took the place of military service. The baron, though less powerful, suddenly found himself a richer man, and his superfluous wealth was utilized in the building of more luxurious homes. The French architects who had built the great Gothic cathedrals were capable of solving the problem now presented them of devising a style of domestic architecture suited to the new conditions, and a great variety of beautiful chateaus sprang up all over France.