I was originally planning to go to the Jardins d’Eyrignac this morning, but as it was a bit cloudy, I decided to head for the Château de Milandes instead. This was another recommendation from my host at La Boiseraie, and turned out to be a beautiful château of the stately home variety surrounded by landscaped gardens.
The château is best known as the former home of Josephine Baker, a black musical star in the 1920’s and 30’s. Originally from the states, she was only allowed to play to black audiences, so she moved to the more liberal France when she soon became a hit in Paris and later at La Folie Berger. The château is basically a museum dedicated to her life where you can see her dresses, excerpts from various programs and publicity for her films and reviews as well as the opulent furnishings. Of course, you’re not allowed to take photos inside but I did manage a couple of surreptitious shots.
Throughout the château are reminders of Josephine’s humanitarian works, and a commentary about her life. Apparently, she was the first Mia Farrow/Madonna type celebrity with 12 children of various nationalities (only one her own) which she adopted with her husband Jo Bouillon.
Josephine took very little notice of the money she spent and as a consequence, the château was repossessed in the 1960’s and sold for a tenth of its value. There is a very poignant photo of her sitting on the steps of the castle when she was evicted with just a few of her belongings at her feet. She did later make a comeback, but sadly never made it back to Milandes.
After visiting the château, I headed out to the gardens. In front of the château are beautifully landscaped gardens and flower beds including a water fountain. Below are further landscaped gardens where the renowned birds of prey show and falconry demonstrations take place.
I’m not overly keen on birds – millions of Japanese tourists have photos of me cowering from the pigeons in Venice! – but I wandered out to the aviary to check out the barn owns, huge eagle owls, falcons and even a bald eagle. I have never seen such a huge bird! Whilst I was taking photos, the handlers arrived and I think took its temperature. There was much squawking and wing flapping, and it certainly wasn’t happy, so I assume that’s what they were doing!
It was here that I was reminded what a small world it is when I bumped into Nicola and Franck who I used to work with at CP, and their three gorgeous kiddiewinks; Theo, Alex and Hugo. We settled in for the birds of prey show, and all was going well until they brought out the Harris Hawk and demonstrated how they catch their prey. Little Theo asked a few awkward questions about what the bird was doing on the back of the rabbit, but we managed to convince him that real rabbits didn’t have wheels and weren’t radio controlled. Phew!
The château is best known as the former home of Josephine Baker, a black musical star in the 1920’s and 30’s. Originally from the states, she was only allowed to play to black audiences, so she moved to the more liberal France when she soon became a hit in Paris and later at La Folie Berger. The château is basically a museum dedicated to her life where you can see her dresses, excerpts from various programs and publicity for her films and reviews as well as the opulent furnishings. Of course, you’re not allowed to take photos inside but I did manage a couple of surreptitious shots.
Throughout the château are reminders of Josephine’s humanitarian works, and a commentary about her life. Apparently, she was the first Mia Farrow/Madonna type celebrity with 12 children of various nationalities (only one her own) which she adopted with her husband Jo Bouillon.
Josephine took very little notice of the money she spent and as a consequence, the château was repossessed in the 1960’s and sold for a tenth of its value. There is a very poignant photo of her sitting on the steps of the castle when she was evicted with just a few of her belongings at her feet. She did later make a comeback, but sadly never made it back to Milandes.
After visiting the château, I headed out to the gardens. In front of the château are beautifully landscaped gardens and flower beds including a water fountain. Below are further landscaped gardens where the renowned birds of prey show and falconry demonstrations take place.
I’m not overly keen on birds – millions of Japanese tourists have photos of me cowering from the pigeons in Venice! – but I wandered out to the aviary to check out the barn owns, huge eagle owls, falcons and even a bald eagle. I have never seen such a huge bird! Whilst I was taking photos, the handlers arrived and I think took its temperature. There was much squawking and wing flapping, and it certainly wasn’t happy, so I assume that’s what they were doing!
It was here that I was reminded what a small world it is when I bumped into Nicola and Franck who I used to work with at CP, and their three gorgeous kiddiewinks; Theo, Alex and Hugo. We settled in for the birds of prey show, and all was going well until they brought out the Harris Hawk and demonstrated how they catch their prey. Little Theo asked a few awkward questions about what the bird was doing on the back of the rabbit, but we managed to convince him that real rabbits didn’t have wheels and weren’t radio controlled. Phew!
The most impressive part of the show was the bald eagle, what an amazing spectacle. Its wing span was absolutely enormous, and it swooped so low that we all found ourselves ducking involuntarily! The handler rewarded it with some chicken and whilst it was happily ripping the flesh to shreds, they did a walk-round so we could see it at close quarters. I would not want to be on the receiving end of those talons!!
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