Château des Milandes
New day, new château!
This one was built in 1489, after the hundred year war was done, and the renaissance had started. By the family that had the sieged-out château down the road, Castelnaud, the one with the trebuchets and crossbows. This one is less a fortress, more a disneyland mansion
It also interests me because, for a couple of decades after WWII, it was owned by one of the music hall superstars of the period, a woman called Josephine Baker. Who ticked all the liberal-DEI boxes of the time!
She was a woman, an entertainer, she was rich, she was successful, and she was african-american. Did she have a husband? I don’t know. She lived in France since the 1920s, became a french citizen, was active in the french resistance, and was, it seems, much loved. She made this château into one of the first tourist attractions in the region, and some new owners have recntly fixed it up again
So off I go to see what I can learn more about all that!
…oh, and a beautiful, meandering bike ride to get here 🚴! No coffee.
