Chateau des Milandes

Josephine Baker, the American-born dancer and singer who became a French star, rented and then bought Les Milandes, a fifteenth-century chateau above the Dordogne. During the war she worked for the Resistance, carrying information written in invisible ink on her sheet music, and was decorated for it. Afterwards she adopted twelve children of different nationalities and religions and raised them here as what she called the Rainbow Tribe, a deliberate demonstration against racism, and opened the estate to visitors to fund it. The money ran out and she was evicted in 1969. The rooms now show her stage costumes, medals and photographs, and she was moved to the Pantheon in 2021.

What you actually see

• The Baker rooms - stage costumes, medals and photographs of her life.
• The Rainbow Tribe story - the twelve adopted children raised here.
• The Resistance decorations - her wartime awards on display.
• The falconry display - a birds of prey demonstration in the gardens.

When to go

April to October; the chateau closes over winter. Falconry displays run several times daily in season and are included. Gardens are best in late spring.

Honest expectations

The falconry element sits oddly beside the biography for some visitors. The chateau interior is modest in scale. Parking is below with a walk up.

Nearby

Castelnaud lies upstream; Beynac is close.