Jeremy's Cool Travel Blog: Louisiana, Part 2: Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

On April 12 we picked up our rental car and headed out of New Orleans to Arnaudville (pop. 1,500), a village northeast of Lafayette where we'd be staying for three nights. Arnaudville interested us because it's in the heart of Cajun country and close to many local points of interest, including the Bayou Teche waterway and historic plantations. In greater Louisiana, French is prominent in family names and names of streets, shops and towns. But in the Arnaudville area of St. Martin parish and beyond (Louisiana is divided into parishes, not counties), about 30% of people actually speak French or Cajun French. We were looking forward to meeting our francophone cousins and learning more of thier culture and cuisine over the next few days.

Les bons temps à Pont Breaux's

On our way to Arnaudville, we took regional roads as much as possible which brought us through some nice countryside and small communities. In the town of St. Martinville, we stopped to check out a local sight and met two middle-aged couples having a drink by the river. We ended up chatting with them for about 30 minutes (people are so friendly here!) and they gave us some tips on things to visit in the area, including a popular restaurant in nearby Breaux Bridge called Pont Breaux's. We ended up at Pont Breaux's for dinner, which is a popular spot with locals and tourists alike for its food and live music. There, we were entertained by a live Cajun band and dancing locals, both young and old. Breaux Bridge is known as the crawfish capital of the world (Louisiana supplies 95% of crawfish harvested in the US), so while Jérôme went for alligator and gumbo, I went for the local delicacy: 4 pounds of boiled crawfish (aka. mudbugs). What I didn't expect was that I'd be served an enormous mound of these small crustaeceans, which resembled a mass of large insects. I didn't even know how to eat these things, so the server had to show me the technique for taking them apart. Each one requires a delicate deconstruction to get at the tiny bit of meat in the tail. For me, the whole process was not visually off-putting, but required a too much effort for too little reward. With the staff looking on in amusement, I toughed it out for a good 45 minutes and only got halfway the serving, so I called it quits and we bagged the rest. Thankfully the dish came with a couple potatoes and some corn or else I would'a left pretty hungry.

We got to our Airbnb accomodations in Arnaudville later that night, one of two small cottages run by a local artist, Jacqui. The place itself was very nice and very clean, but we were less fond of the three large cockroaches that we saw within a few minutes of our arrival. We soon discovered that our place had a hole under the stove, so they were getting in through there. It turns out that these guys are indigenous to the area and in our case, hung out in the pine tree on the front yard. Luckily the manager of the property, George, was staying in the cottage next door and offered to switch with us, since his place was roach free. So we did, but that didn't stop a flying roach from getting in later on when the door was open and landing on Jérôme's chest while he was reading in bed.

Rosedown Plantation

The next day, Sunday, we drove northwest of Baton Rouge to the town of St. Francisville to see its impressive historic homes. There we also visited a beautiful cemetary filled with enormous oak trees, as well as the impressive 19th century Rosedown Plantation, which is designated as a National Historic Landmark and which once 'employed' around 450 slaves. That evening, we went to the Whiskey River Landing bar in Henderson to see Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band kick out some lively zydeco jams. Whiskey River has live music every Sunday evening from 4:00-8:00 and it gets packed with people of all ages who tear up the dancefloor. Like salsa or swing, people dance in pairs to this music and each couple dances with thier own unique style. It's all super casual and everyone was having a great time. I can't think of any place in Toronto where people from so many different age groups and backgrounds come to dance together. It's amazing and the way it should be.

Cherie no. 1

On Monday morning we headed back to Henderson for an airboat tour of the bayou in the Atchafalaya Basin. Our guide and captain of the boat was Kirk Guidry, a good-humoured, French-speaking Cajun who enjoyed having on board two francophone cousins from the north. For the next two hours, he toured eight of us through the bayou swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin. The basin is filled with large cypress trees that give the impression of being in a flooded forest. On our tour we visited a couple female alligators and fed them morsels of meat and marshmallows (females generally stay in the same area and are easy to find if you know where to look, as Mr. Guidry did). One of the females had a few babies with her and was fiercely protective of her territory, hissing and snapping. You did not want to get close. Mr. Guidry visits these ladies regularly as part of his daily tours. He affectionately calls them 'Cherie' and speaks to them in French. Apart from the wildlife, it was great to cruise around the bayou on an airboat, particularly when we went under the highway, which is built on concrete pillars crossing the swamp for miles.

That afternoon we visited the Bayou Teche microbrewery, located in Arnaudville, for a tour of their small plant. The company is about four years old and produces a diverse series of beers. The company is loyal to the French roots of the region, so all of its beers have French names and they even produce a few beers in collaboration with breweries in Belgium and France (they're working on a similar collaboration with a Quebec brewery). Even though we showed up unannounced, one of the staff, Carlos, was happy to give us a personal tour of the plant and give samples of their several beers. Carlos and his colleagues were really generous with their time explaining the brewing process to us, as well as some history in the region and recommendations of food to try and places to visit.

Our plan was to visit Lafayette following the tour, but it started raining pretty hard. Instead, we drove around a bit and then followed Carlos' recommendations to stop at Poché's market for some boudin (a type of cajun sausage) and cracklins (fried pig skin and fat). With those in hand, we spent the evening watching reality shows on bayou alligator hunters and on buyer-seller guys in New England. Good times.

We left Arnaudville the next day to make our way back to New Orleans, very satisfied with our three days in Cajun country. Apart for a stop for fried chicken in a small village, it was an uneventful drive.