Warlord after warlord marched through this region during the Hundred Years' War, when France and England both claimed it. Then, starting in the 16th century, fighting between Catholics and Protestants devastated the countryside.
This period of ignorance and violence, though, gave rise to one of the most unusual thinkers of the time, Michel de Montaigne, whose famous essays struck a modern and personal note not heard before.
"With the Wars of Religion raging around him, Montaigne began to consider the nature of human happiness, " one guidebook writes. His 16th-century library tower can be found in the town of Bergerac, roughly 40 miles west of Les Milandes.
Another famous thinker, Montesquieu, lived in Bordeaux in the early 1700s. His writings about law pioneered the idea of checks and balances in government that so influenced the founders of the American republic.
Other historical connections exist between Aquitaine and the United States. The slave trade made Bordeaux rich in the 1700s. The introduction of tobacco gave the Dordogne a new crop.
And back on the estate of Les Milandes, a statue of Josephine Baker has at its feet pebbles from both the Dordogne and the Missouri rivers, blending Baker's heritage with her later life.
