Over a week in Louisiana already spent with our niece, Isabelle, her husband, Yohann, and their two cute boys, Samuel and Lucas. It’s always nice for Alain and me to visit our family either in France or this time, in Lafayette. We have been living pretty much by ourselves since we decided to immigrate to Canada.
Isabelle and Yohann were eager to show us the surroundings of Lafayette and the first day, we went altogether for a swamp tour. Our guide, a real Cajun of 75 years old, Normand Leblanc invited us to join him in his boat. The atmosphere is strange on the swamp, you have the Spanish moss hanging from the cypress. These large trees have their feet in the water and it’s easy to project yourself at night fall with the mist just over the water… People living nearby the swamps used to harvest the moss to fill out mattresses or car seats until the sixties, which is not that long ago. The heat is torrid and the humidity high. It’s three o’clock, therefore luckily, the mosquitoes are not quite out yet. Normand still speaks French and is happy to share what his live has been growing up around the ‘’bayou’’ Teche, where he grew up. He was a hunter of alligators and he proudly displayed his pictures in the National Geographic. He also shows us pictures of alligators that he had killed, a bullet just above the eyes, weighing about 300 kgs and probably close to 9 feet. You can still hunt alligators in Louisiana with a permit, 4 per season. Normand does not hunt anymore. We have to drink a small glass of whiskey while in the boat, not that we needed this to be hot. At this time of the day, and because of the heat according to Normand, we don’t get to see large alligators but a couple of small ones, resting on branches. A few young alligators are waiting for us to fall in the water, we feel spied as just the eyes come barely out of the water. They barely move…
Did you know that the famous ‘’Tabasco’’ sauce was produced in Louisiana, on Avery Island close to Lafayette. They have only one plant, this one, for their worldwide distribution in about 130 countries with about 200 full time workers. The seeds and grown on the Island, then exported to Central and South America. The red peppers are then harvested and shipped to Louisiana, where they are being mashed with a little bit of salt. The marsh ferments and ages for three years in oak barrels. Finally, the aged mash is mixed with vinegar for 27 days before being bottled. The salt being used for Tabasco is actually mined on Avery Island.
Louisiana is a state with a very rich history too. Of course, there are the ‘’Cajuns’’, the ancestors of the Acadiens, who were deported by the British in 1855 from Acadia (now Nova Scotia). This is what had been called ‘’Le grand derangement’’. For most of them, they did not settle in Louisiana before 1865, after spending a few years in France or in other American areas. They were usually not welcome in the United States, as they spoke French and were mainly Catholics. The Acadiens were hard workers and adapted to their new life style by working even harder. We have visited a couple of State Parks. In Saint-Martinville, an historic village, the Longfellow Evangeline State Park is worth the visit. The Creoles have played a role in the history of Louisiana, they were from French ancestors mostly, as well as from German decendance. They had made the choice of coming to Louisiana. Many plantations of sugar cane belonged to them and at the time, they painted their house in vivid colours. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, there were about 400 plantations along the Mississippi. Once the plantation was acquired by an American family, it was painted in white. The plantations were usually oriented facing the river to get as much air as possible.
We were surprised to see in Louisiana how little the French language is used nowadays. You still have in some villages, the streets’ name in both languages like in Saint-Martinville, as a ‘’souvenir’’ of this French heritage, but even in the Visitor Information Centers almost nobody uses French anymore. Even in Lafayette, the capital of the ‘’cajuns’’, you seldom hear French. Our swamp guide, Normand, shared with us that his kids spoke only English. Apparently, there has been a time in Lousiana where you were not authorized nor encouraged to speak French at all. This lasted for about one to two generations. It has been enough to almost eradicate French here. They are trying now to encourage French exchanges and initiatives, but it seems that it is mainly folklore now, most certainly too late...
Yes, we have spent some time in New Orleans : this city has been our ‘’coup de coeur’’ so far. From the other side of one bridge, it does look like any other American city with his skyscrapers, its dome, but very soon, you see on some large streets, the palm trees, the trolley bus. The French Quarter is as wild as it was described to us. As soon as it is 4 o’clock in the afternoon, Royal and Bourbon Streets start becoming alive with hundreds of people invading the road. Bourbon Street is the place to go to have fun and party. All of a sudden, the level of the music is turned up and it is a fierce competition between all the clubs, bars, cafes and tourist shops on which one is going to be the loudest. This is in a friendly atmosphere of course, and like at Mardi Gras, during the carnival, you have people throwing collars of beads for you to catch. In New Orleans, there is no curfew for drinks and the crowd seems to be let lose. From time to time, you do see the police but they seem to quietly gauge the situation and ensuring it does not get too much out of hand. There is a lot of drinking going on and there are Jazz bands playing in the streets or in the clubs, which contributes to the ambiance. We had to taste the worldwide famous ‘’Hurricane’’ at Pete O’Brien, a drink with rum. For the food, Alain and I have tasted the jumbalaya, the seafood gumbo, the ‘’boudin’’ creole and other Cajun specialties both in restaurants and also bought all ready to eat on the way back to our campsite.
We are back to Lafayette for a day or so, just enough time to do some laundry, clean the motorcycles and take care of one oil change. Probably, tomorrow we will be On the Road Again. Next stops : Houston, and Dallas.
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