Its armoury is full of decorative weapons and rooms richly decorated with 16th- and 17th-century furniture from Spain and Burgundy, including a 16th-century German Dormition of the Virgin, the Burgundian tomb of Jean de Chabannes, a tapestry showing François Ier, with his falconers, and a gilt Spanish bed fit for a king – in fact the bed of François’s arch-rival, the megalomanic emperor Charles V. Today, the tour includes both the keep with its 2.5m-thick walls, and views that make the slog up worthwhile, as well as the château.
As time went on, their castle found itself on the frontier between English Guyenne and France, in a commanding position over the river. Seat of the oldest of Périgord’s four baronies, Bourdeilles is so old that the first barons lived in fairy-tale times, when they slew griffins and transported themselves to Jerusalem and back by means of an ointment extracted from a dragon’s ear. Pons returned to Biron determined to add some quattrocento glamour with the delicate Pavillon de la Recette and a two-storey chapel – the ground floor was a parish church for the village, and the upstairs reserved for the nabobs. The next important building spree was initiated by Pons de Gontaut-Biron in 1497. The first baron of Biron built the square 12th-century keep, or Tour Anglaise, while Romanesque walls and the Tour du Concierge (with Renaissance dormers) date after the siege in 1212 by Simon de Montfort.
Over the centuries more and more were added to the pile, creating one of the most eclectic castles in France. The steep isolated hill was a natural stronghold, and saw its first fort in the 11th century to command the northern approaches to the Agenais. You can see this mighty bruiser of a castle long before you get anywhere near it. Admission includes the beautiful gardens, and in season a demonstration of falconry, complete with a mechanical rabbit and ferret. But there are also displays on her work in the Resistance that won her the Légion d’Honneur in 1961, and her work in the American civil rights movement, when she was the only woman to speak at Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in 1963. Today Les Milandes is a wonderful shrine to Josephine Baker’s memory, filled with her glamorous costumes and her famous skirt of upturned bananas there are hundreds of photos, posters, recordings of her songs and films of her extraordinary dance moves. In the 1930s, while Josephine Baker was on holiday in the Dordogne, Les Milandes cast a spell on her almost as powerful as the spell she had cast over Paris with her joyful, exuberant versions of the Charleston and Black Bottom. Château Les MilandesĪ wooded road from Castelnaud follows the river past the 14th–17th-century Château de Fayrac to this Renaissance beauty built by François de Caumont for his bride. Below the castle, the Éco Musée de la Noix occupies an 18th-century farm amid 7ha of walnut groves, where you learn about the nutty side of Périgord Noir, and dine on walnut dishes in the little restaurant. There are films on medieval warfare, and in summer they shoot off the trebuchets. © Gareth Kirkland, ShutterstockĪbandoned after the Revolution, the castle is rather appropriately once again full of catapults, swords and crossbows.
First mentioned in 1214, when its Cathar lord was chased out by Simon de Montfort, Castelnaud’s rulers, the Caumonts, stuck with the English during the Hundred Years’ War and let them use it as a base from which to terrorise the surrounding countryside. Opposite Beynac, the powerful hulk of its eternal nemesis, Castelnaud stands undaunted on the limestone cliffs. In the Last Supper, note the rare portrayal of the occasion’s maître d’ – St Martial, the apostle of Aquitaine. The interior of the castle has also been through numerous transformations: there’s a monumental 17th-century stairway, a Grand Siècle salon with a sculpted wooden chimney carved with mythologies, a Sacrifice of Isaac done with provincial panache, and late 15th-century frescoes in the Oratory (which, stylistically, are only about 400 years behind Tuscany) of the Last Supper, the Pietà and the Man of Sorrows. Although de Montfort spared Satan’s Bow when King Philippe Auguste personally intervened, he destroyed the château’s most imposing towers. In 1214 Simon de Montfort attacked Beynac and its baron for being a devoted friend of the Cathar-friendly Count Raymond VI of Toulouse. Barons of Périgord, the Beynacs were every bit as daunting and fierce as their castle. One of most powerful castles in the region, Beynac looms 1115m over the Dordogne. Boasting classical French architecture, gorgeous gardens and stunning interiors, Dordogne’s châteaux are like something from a fairytale.
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